1 dead, 1 critically injured after small plane crashes into Torrance building shortly after takeoff

A small plane crashed into a building shortly after taking off from Torrance Municipal Airport about noon on Thursday, killing one person and critically injuring another.

The crash was a mile east of the airport near Crenshaw Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway.

The plane slammed into the backside of a strip mall in the 25300 block of Crenshaw Boulevard at the north end of a shopping center that includes restaurants, a salon and a cellphone store. The single-engine Cessna 177 landed on top of the California Pizza Kitchen and Joey’s Smokin’ BBQ.

The aircraft appeared to have gone through the roof and into a covered patio seating area, said Assistant Torrance Fire Chief Robert Millea. Fire officials rushed to cover a fuel leak with a blanket of foam.

Police officers were able to help both occupants out of the plane, but one man succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, Torrance Police Sgt. Alexander Martinez said. It wasn’t disclosed if he was the pilot.

The other person was transported to a hospital in critical condition, authorities said.

There were no reports of anyone on the ground getting hurt.

Torrance resident Tina Schneider, who works in the building next to the crash, saw the plane fall.

At first, she said, she saw it take off. Then it made a U-turn, appearing to try to return to the airport.

“You could hear the plane was having problems,” said Schneider, 47, who works at DaVita, a dialysis center.

She heard the plane backfire three times. Then Schneider watched the plane hit the building.

“There was a guy, hanging upside down and dangling,” she said. “He was alive, stuck in his (seatbelts).

Officials pushed her and others back. “Gasoline was all pouring out,” she said. “Then they cut (the man) out of his straps and pulled him to the side.”

Officials have not said what may have precipitated the crash. It’s unclear if the pilot radioed in a distress call before hitting the ground. It  likely will take a day or two to remove the plane and investigate further.

The pilot’s identity has not been released.

Omid Taheri, 32, saw the crash from the Acura South Bay dealership across the street, where he’s a sales associate.

“I just saw the plane looking like it was trying to get altitude,” he said. “Then it turned sideways and to the right and then took a nosedive straight down.”

Taheri didn’t notice any smoke coming from the plane as it went down, but Hasan Roberson, a sales manager, said it sounded like the engine was sputtering.

There was no explosion or visible fire when the plane hit the building, Taheri said.

Jacob Poon of Long Beach was in the middle of cutting a client’s hair at neighboring Victor Anthony’s Hair Studio when the building began shaking.

He and his coworkers thought the building had just been struck by a car.

“We’re lucky the building didn’t catch on fire,” said Poon, 66.  “It was a real Godsend that we are safe, because you could expect a fire from an airplane crash.”

Officials arrived minutes later and evacuated the building, he said.

Jesse Ortiz, who’s worked in an office building near where the plane crashed for 14 years, said he also heard the engine sputtering prior to the crash.

He saw first responders trying to help.

“There were four or five police officers – they were pushing the fuselage to get the guy out, because the plane’s nose was down,” Ortiz said.

He saw officials remove one person, a man who looked like he was in his late 50s or early 60s, from the wreckage with blood all over his face.

“He was non-responsive,” Ortiz said.

Torrance resident Amir Amini, 41, owner of Kabab Curry Cuisine of India, also was working at the time of the crash. His restaurant is part of the same building.

Once he heard there was a plane crash, he rushed to all of the other businesses in the building and alerted them to shut off their gas in case of a fire.

“It’s dangerous,” Amini said. “He was just 5 to 10 feet away from the electric and gas line.”

As eyewitnesses spoke to a reporter, small planes continued to fly overhead and come in for landings at the nearby airport

As of about 3:15 p.m., all lanes of north and southbound Crenshaw Boulevard were open to traffic from PCH to Skypark Drive. Eastbound Airport Drive remained closed at Crenshaw Boulevard, and authorities asked that people avoid the area.