Maybe 20 minutes ago I heard what sounded like an engine revving up and then the whole house shook. I went outside to see if there had been a car crash but I didn't see anything.
My neighbor came over and pointed across the valley to a house on fire and told me that a small plane had crashed in to a house. I can only hope no one was home - as you can see the house is a total loss.
What is interesting about this is how the news came in about it. The first place it was reported was on the local "Buzz" Facebook site. Lots of people asking what the noise was, then pictures of the smoke and then finally the video on Twitter I'll post at the end.
If you look at the Twitter feed you can see news agencies from all over the world asking for permission to use the video in news broadcasts. The photographer (who I do not know) graciously allows them all to use it but each agency has their own form and procedure they want the guy to follow.
Film at 11. Or not - does anyone use film any more?
Holy ****. That is just awful. Oh I hope the people in that house got out. And can you imagine what it feels like to be living in the house that plane just stopped short of? Jesus.
We had a similar incident involving a helicopter back in 1998.
quote:
Federal officials are investigating whether a helicopter experienced engine problems shortly before plummeting into an Arlington Heights house Monday, killing all four aboard and narrowly missing a woman working on her computer just feet from the impact.
Witnesses said the helicopter, rented by officials of a private Arlington Heights school to take aerial photographs of the school's new building, had hovered over the neighborhood on the west side of Arlington Heights for about 30 minutes shortly before it dropped out of the sky and onto the home at 311 S. Fernandez Ave.
Killed in the crash were Shinobu Sada, 49, of Arlington Heights, a vice principal at the Chicago Futabakai Japanese School; Kazuya Yamaguichi, 38, of Arlington Heights, an art teacher at the school; Yasu Sato, 62, a photographer from Wilmette who owned a Chicago studio; and the pilot, Scott Maras, 40, of Lake Geneva, Wis., who had worked about 3 years for Rotors in Motion, a helicopter transport company based at Waukegan Regional Airport.
Remarkably, the helicopter missed Grace Stearns, 68, who was working on her computer in a room less than 10 feet from where the helicopter hit, destroying the roof and two cars inside an attached garage.