Pilot dies after small plane crashes in Phoenix

Witness says plane went into a nosedive before hitting an airport control building

PHOENIX — The pilot of a small aircraft was killed Wednesday when the plane crashed outside Deer Valley Airport in Phoenix, police said.
Phoenix police spokesman Detective James Holmes told The Associated Press the plane had taken off from Deer Valley Airport around 6 a.m. Wednesday.
Witnesses told police the plane took off to the east, circled around to the south of the airport and was heading north. Holmes said witnesses heard the plane's engine sputter before it crashed.
Holmes said it appears the plane struck a brick wall and then hit a building northwest of the airport.
Earlier, bright, orange flames and clouds of smoke were pouring from the wreckage before Phoenix fire crews arrived on scene and extinguished the flames.
KPNX-12 News reported that the building was not badly damaged and that no one on the ground was badly damaged.
Holmes said the plane is a bundle of charred and blackened metal.
Weather reports indicate that the conditions were clear at the time of the crash.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press