MANILA, Philippines -- A passenger plane caught fire shortly after takeoff Friday and crashed into a home in a suburban subdivision, killing all 21 people aboard and four people in the house, officials said.
The crash of the domestic plane came a week after an explosion rocked a plane preparing to take off at Manila's airport.
The twin-engine King Air propeller plane carrying 19 passengers and two crewmen took off at 6:22 a.m. Friday from Manila's airport bound for the southern city of Surigao, the Manila Rescue Center said. It crashed minutes later in the subdivision of Merville, which is near the airport.
'It looked like it was dragging itself. I knew it was going to crash. Later I saw a smoke coming out of its right engine. It tried to turn back and then it fell,' said Rodolfo Buendia, a resident of Merville.
Witnesses said the plane slammed into a house owned by a Japanese family, setting the home ablaze.
'All of the people aboard were killed,' said Jun Solis, a spokesman for the owner of the plane, Aerolift.
Police said four people in the house -- a man identified only as Yasukasu Suzuki, his Filipino wife and two children ages 1 and 4 -- also were killed.
Firemen and rescue workers put out the fire at the crash site. At least 10 charred bodies were retrieved from the burned-out wreckage of the aircraft, rescuers said.
Its tail rested atop the house and the fuselage on the backyard swimming pool.
It was the second crash in the Manila area in a week. On May 11 an explosion and fire hit a Philippine Airlines 737 plane preparing to take off at the Manila airport, killing eight of the 119 people aboard.
