Fatal fireball in suburban street

A PILOT was killed when his small plane crashed and burst into flames in a suburban Melbourne street yesterday.

The single-engine Cessna 172 was smashed to pieces when it took out power lines and part of a residential fence before it was engulfed by fire — as residents could only watch on helplessly.

Witnesses said the plane narrowly missed homes as it crashed into the middle of Scarlet St, Mordialloc, south of Melbourne, just after 5pm. One person, believed to be a man, was found dead inside the plane.

Resident Justin Vance, 42, one of the first on the scene, said: “We saw the power lines move and we ran outside and saw a ball of flames.

“It was all over by the time we got out there — just a big ball of flames.”

Another resident said the burnt-out cockpit came to rest in the middle of the street.

“By the look of it, he must have already been pretty low when he came down, rather than plunging from a great height,” the resident said.

“Someone said the plane bounced off the front fence of a house as it came down, just missing the house.”

Robert Fox said he saw fire- fighters hosing down the burning plane, after sirens alerted him to the crash. “It was very intense,” he said.

Dozens of residents were left without power and several streets in the area were closed for several hours after the crash, which happened less than 1km from the runway at Moorabbin Airport.

Police will prepare a report for the coroner, and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau will investigate.

Melbourne was the scene of another fatal plane crash last year, when a chartered plane flying to King Island ploughed into the roof of the Essendon DFO on February 21. The pilot and four American golfers were killed. A man was also killed in a light plane crash at Clyde North in Melbourne’s southeast after it crashed in a paddock last August.