Kent air crash: Five people feared dead

At least five people are feared dead after a private jet crashed into a housing estate in Farnborough, near Orpington in Kent.

In quotes: Eyewitness accounts of the Kent air crash Were you there? Send us your accounts | Send us your pictures The Cessna Citation 501 aircraft Officers were called to Romsey Close, off Broadwater Gardens, at around 2.40pm after a twin-engine Cessna Citation 501 crashed into two houses. The two pilots and three passengers on board the jet, which was destined for France, have not been accounted for. There have been no reports of fatalities on the ground, while two people were taken to hospital suffering shock. Neighbours said the owners of the home which bore the brunt of the crash, named locally as Pat and Ed Harman, were on holiday at the time, and were due back tonight. A spokesman for nearby Biggin Hill private airfield said the plane had taken off from there but had then experienced difficulties, made a Mayday call and was attempting an emergency landing. Eyewitnesses described the jet coming in very low over the estate and almost clipping a number of roofs before crashing into two homes. Early indications suggest the pilot averted what could have been a more serious tragedy by steering the aircraft towards the edge of the estate. Google Map: The plane hit 5 Romsey Close before crashing. 4 Romsey Close caught fire in the aftermath of the crash Resident Ashley Cheeseman, who lives near the crash site, said: "He (the pilot) done everything he could to keep that plane away from public people. He made a very good judgment call, tragically they didn't bring down the plane safely. "He was banking left to right where he was trying to keep that plane up in the air." Another resident, Jason Murrell, 39, said the plane was so low moments before the crash that he could see into the terrified pilot's eyes. "I looked into the eyes of the pilot and a female passenger just seconds before it crashed because the plane was heading straight for my house in Hale Close," he said. "I thought it was going to hit our house and kill us but looking up I could see the terror in the plane passengers' eyes as they whizzed past us. "The pilot was struggling to bank away from our house and a terrified woman was staring straight at me. I will never forget that sight. The plane banked to the right and it followed a line of houses towards some woods. The pilot was trying to clear the estate - he was a real hero. You could tell that from the crunching sound and the path it took as he battled to avoid the houses." Mr Murrell added: "The pilot did all he could. Had it hit my house, because we're detached in a row of five or six houses, then it would have been a catastrophe and many people would have been killed. I know it sounds horrible but in a way this could turn to be a miracle that more people were not injured or killed." A pilot, who gave his name only as John, was flying a four-seater aircraft ahead of the doomed plane and heard the pilot's mayday call, in which he described severe engine vibrations. "I was on final approach about 30 seconds from touchdown, and I heard the pilot in the other plane declare mayday," he said. "You could hear the alarms in the background in the cockpit. Choking back tears, he added: "The pilot came back over the radio and said 'we're going in going in' and the radio stayed live. Then as I turned off the runway I saw the plane and it just nose-dived basically out of the sky and the radio went dead and black smoke all plumed up." The wreckage of the plane after the crash He added that the engine vibrations could have been caused by bird strike, or some internal mechanical failure, and would have rendered the engine virtually unusable. Weather conditions were clear, he said. Carl Mills, who lives across the road from the crash site, said there was a huge hole in the road and smoke was billowing from several houses. "I didn't see the plane but I heard it. It's the loudest noise I have ever heard, like a ball of thunder," he said. "I have looked out the window and all I could see was a big, big ball of fire and just smoke pluming from the house. It's unbelievable." Another eyewitness told Sky News he heard a loud aeroplane engine overhead before the jet crashed seconds later. He said it appeared the jet was aiming to land in nearby woods or playing fields in an attempt to avoid the residential area. "It tried to miss the houses as best as possible," he said. Katheryn Simnett, a resident of a nearby house, told the BBC: "We looked out of the bedroom window and we saw it (the plane) flying really low, as though it was in trouble. Click to enlarge: Crash site and airport "It swerved our house. It looked like it was trying to land in the nearby woods, the nearby fields ... but it crashed into two of the houses on the block and we saw two big balls of black smoke and could smell the air fuel." John Waite, a member of the local residents' association, said he had been concerned about planes landing so close to the nearby Princess Royal Hospital. "They come over the hospital about 700ft above it," he said. "We have been trying to enable the Bromley Council to resist the expansion. "I am just worried about those people in the plane. And all those people who were in the houses. I hope nobody was in the house at the time." Mr Waite, who lives a quarter of a mile from where the plane came down, said he was sitting in his garden when he heard the jet roar past. "There was black smoke which was pouring out for about five minutes after the crash. "At the moment the area is full of helicopters. One has landed at the back of the school which is nearby."

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