November 9, 2004 in Nation/World

Plane crashes in Detroit residential neighborhood

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Associated Press photo

Investigators look over the wreckage of a small plane that crashed in Detroit on Monday after clipping a utility pole, setting fire to two houses.
(Full-size photo)

DETROIT – A small plane crashed in a Detroit neighborhood Monday after it clipped a utility pole, setting fire to two houses and injuring both people aboard the plane.

The pilot and passenger escaped the wreckage on their own and were hospitalized in fair condition with broken bones. No one on the ground was hurt, officials said.

The Piper Aztec began having engine problems immediately after taking off from Detroit City Airport and clipped the pole as it made a turn, police said.

The plane crashed about a half-mile from the airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Police said the roof and much of the second story of a new house burned. Across the street, the mangled wreckage of the plane lay near another house that also was damaged by fire.

Lakisha Roberts, 29, was in the new house with her 1-year-old son when she heard the plane hit.

“I just heard a boom, then I seen all the fire in the yard and I just started running,” she said.

Roberts said her husband and two other children, 10 and 6 years old, weren’t home at the time.

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