PA34 boort zich in appartementsgebouw (CAN)
Wacht op leden
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A city centre with a growing number of highrises next to a busy international airport - it was bound to happen.
A Piper Seneca twin-engine airplane bound for Pitt Meadows slammed into the north face of a 16-storey apartment building in downtown Richmond Friday afternoon, killing the pilot and injuring at least two of the apartment's occupants.
According to Richmond RCMP, the plane slammed into the ninth floor of the Rosario Gardens apartment building at 8297 Saba Rd., just south of Richmond Public Market.
The plane hit the building around 4:10 p.m., less than 10 minutes after leaving Vancouver International Airport.
Miraculously, it did not explode on impact.
It's not clear what the plane was doing flying over the densely populated city centre. The pilot was believed to be the only occupant of the plane.
According to eyewitness reports, the back portion of the plane dropped down onto a parkade rooftop after it slammed into the building. The plane's fuselage remained lodged inside the apartment.
"There are two injured from the apartment where the plane hit - that's all we know," Richmond RCMP Supt. Ward Clapham told the News at the scene. "The fuselage is in the building."
The apartment's two occupants were rushed to hospital with undisclosed injuries and the entire apartment building was evacuated.
Eyewitnesses saw one of the occupants of the building waving hysterically at the edge of the gaping hole the plane had ripped into her apartment.
Kevin Zhong, who manages the building across the street from the Rosario Gardens apartment, ran to nearby Richmond Public Market, after hearing the noise of the impact.
"I heard a loud sound and I go outside and there was a large hole in the wall," Zhong told the News.
Zhong ran upstairs to the fourth floor of the public market, which connects with Rosario Gardens via a parkade with a rooftop garden, where part of the plane had fallen.
Zhong jumped out onto the rooftop of the parkade and saw a woman who looked to be in her 60s frantically waving and calling out in Cantonese from the large hole that had been ripped into her ninth-floor apartment.
"The water was falling down from the ninth floor," Zhong said.
Zhong tried to calm the woman down and told her he had called 911.
The section of downtown Richmond between Westminster Highway and Cook Road, and No. 3 Road to Garden City Road was a madhouse of traffic snarls, emergency crews, media, onlookers and downtown residents who were trapped outside the police corridor and unable to get home.
Occupants of the evacuated building were not allowed back in, pending confirmation the building had not sustained serious structural damage.
By Nelson Bennett, Richmond News
Published: Friday, October 19, 2007
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A Piper Seneca twin-engine airplane bound for Pitt Meadows slammed into the north face of a 16-storey apartment building in downtown Richmond Friday afternoon, killing the pilot and injuring at least two of the apartment's occupants.
According to Richmond RCMP, the plane slammed into the ninth floor of the Rosario Gardens apartment building at 8297 Saba Rd., just south of Richmond Public Market.
The plane hit the building around 4:10 p.m., less than 10 minutes after leaving Vancouver International Airport.
Miraculously, it did not explode on impact.
It's not clear what the plane was doing flying over the densely populated city centre. The pilot was believed to be the only occupant of the plane.
According to eyewitness reports, the back portion of the plane dropped down onto a parkade rooftop after it slammed into the building. The plane's fuselage remained lodged inside the apartment.
"There are two injured from the apartment where the plane hit - that's all we know," Richmond RCMP Supt. Ward Clapham told the News at the scene. "The fuselage is in the building."
The apartment's two occupants were rushed to hospital with undisclosed injuries and the entire apartment building was evacuated.
Eyewitnesses saw one of the occupants of the building waving hysterically at the edge of the gaping hole the plane had ripped into her apartment.
Kevin Zhong, who manages the building across the street from the Rosario Gardens apartment, ran to nearby Richmond Public Market, after hearing the noise of the impact.
"I heard a loud sound and I go outside and there was a large hole in the wall," Zhong told the News.
Zhong ran upstairs to the fourth floor of the public market, which connects with Rosario Gardens via a parkade with a rooftop garden, where part of the plane had fallen.
Zhong jumped out onto the rooftop of the parkade and saw a woman who looked to be in her 60s frantically waving and calling out in Cantonese from the large hole that had been ripped into her ninth-floor apartment.
"The water was falling down from the ninth floor," Zhong said.
Zhong tried to calm the woman down and told her he had called 911.
The section of downtown Richmond between Westminster Highway and Cook Road, and No. 3 Road to Garden City Road was a madhouse of traffic snarls, emergency crews, media, onlookers and downtown residents who were trapped outside the police corridor and unable to get home.
Occupants of the evacuated building were not allowed back in, pending confirmation the building had not sustained serious structural damage.
By Nelson Bennett, Richmond News
Published: Friday, October 19, 2007
bron