5 killed when small plane crashes in California parking lot

Los Angeles, Aug 6: A small plane crashed in the parking lot of a strip mall outside of Anaheim, Calif on Sunday, killing all five people on board, the authorities said.

The twin-engine aircraft on Sunday crashed near the South Coast Plaza shopping centre in Santa Ana city, according to the Orange County Fire Authority, Xinhua news agency reported.

A medical group has been established to handle patient care and treatment, said the Orange County Fire Authority.

The plane was registered to a San Francisco company and had flown from the East bay suburb of Concord, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records.

The FAA tweeted that a Cessna 414 declared an emergency landing and crashed in a mall parking lot near the John Wayne Orange County Airport.

The plane was heading to the airport southeast of Los Angeles when it came down and struck an unoccupied parked car in the lot of a Staples store and a CVS pharmacy, Orange County Fire Authority Captain Steve Concialdi said. There was no fire and nobody on the ground was hurt, he said.