AT least one person has died, and five children injured, after a light plane crashed into a power pole in Sydney's southwest, narrowly missing a primary school.
NewsCenter - The plane went down sometime after 6am Perth time at Canley Vale in NSW, bringing down power lines and crashing in a park close to Canley Vale Primary School, police said.
The pilot was confirmed dead and five children were among the injured. A car with one adult and three schoolchidren on board was hit with debris from the crash.
Approximately 80 people, including parents, teachers and school children, were evacuated to the nearby Adams Park.
Thousands of residents and businesses had also lost power due to the crash.
Acting Fire Brigades Superintendent Paul Johnson said no one was injured in the primary school, which was evacuated.
Fires in the plane and the car, and the burning spilled fuel, had been extinguished, he told Fairfax Radio Network.
But there were still live wires across the plane.
There were no fatalities among residents or people who were on the streets, he said.
One man who had been in a car nearby had been taken to hospital with an injured back, while two others were also being treated for shock.
An Integral Energy spokesperson said they were attempting to restore power to 13,500 homes and businesses in the area, the ABC reported.
"There are some 2500 customers still without power.
"Our crews have worked with emergency services to complete isolating the fault site and we expect to have the majority (of services) back fairly soon.
"But those (properties) directly connected to where the plane has impacted will be without power for longer.
"We're talking about some 100 customers."
'Everything just blacked out'
Traffic reporter Jason Bowman was in the air when he heard the pilot's distress call before he attempted an emergency landing.
"He had taken off from Bankstown, was heading out towards Richmond/Windsor, had an emergency going on in the aircraft and asked to be able to come into land," Mr Bowman told Macquarie Radio.
"They closed Bankstown Airport, he made a turn-around ... he's tried to make his way back (and) unfortunately he hasn't been able to get high enough because of the problem that he had with the aircraft and has crashed."
Resident Terry Smith told Channel 7 he initially thought there had been a car crash.
“We heard a loud explosion and everything just blacked out,” Mr Smith said.
He said the suburb was close to Bankstown Airport, and air traffic had increased dramatically since it was opened to domestic flights.
Shopkeeper Ken, who works on the Canley Vale Rd, told Radio 3AW that people panicked as they ran down the street calling for help.
"You could see the yellow flames shoot up and the cars caught on fire," he said.
"It's only 50 feet from the school. Another 50 feet to the right and it would have been trouble," he said.
Geoffrey told Channel 7 that the plane looked like an “old type” that was “spluttering and swaying” before the crash.
He said the aircraft may have been attempting to land on a large soccer field opposite the school.
He said he heard a “massive explosion” followed almost immediately by another explosion.
Local repairer Sam Elwar said if the crash had happened 10 minutes later things could have been much worse, as children were about to arrive at the school.
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