An investigator looks over the wreckage of a small plane after a crash near Pebble and Valley View Boulevard Thursday. Oct. 29, 2020.
Published Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020 | 10:01 a.m.
Updated Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020 | 1:17 p.m.
A twin-engine aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff today in the southwest valley, killing two people and igniting a fire that damaged a construction trailer from which a man escaped while choking on fuel fumes.
“It was awful," said Bruce Langson, the property owner. He said he heard the aircraft flying low and knew something was wrong.
“I could hear the propeller ... It sounded like a helicopter," Langson told reporters. "Then I heard a thud, crash, and a gigantic ball of flames. Fuel splashed over my construction trailer.”
The plane took off from the North Las Vegas Airport and went down after nine minutes of flight, said Thomas Touchstone, deputy chief of operations for the Clark County Fire Department. There were no survivors on the plane, he said.
The plane, a Cessna 310 headed to San Diego, crashed about 9:30 a.m. near Pebble Road and South Valley View Boulevard, authorities said. The lightly developed area is just south of the Silverton casino and west of Henderson Executive Airport.
Langson, a race car driver, described searing heat from the crash but said he escaped uninjured. He was checked by paramedics after reporting lightheadedness from fuel fumes. Residents around Las Vegas saw a plume of smoke.
“There was nothing I could do to assist anyone there,” Langson said. “It looked like a movie scene from the worst horror movie you've seen.”
It is unknown what caused the plane to go down, but witnesses saw it flying low before they heard the crash, Touchstone said. The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate, officials said.
Metro said it was assisting the Clark County Fire Department and that there were no major road closures in the area.
Las Vegas Sun reporter Ricardo Torres-Cortez and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
