Seven killed as small plane crashes in Ecuador

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QUITO, Ecuador, Mar 20 (AP): An upscale neighbourhood in Ecuador's capital turned into a charred, smoky disaster scene when a small army plane crashed into an apartment building, killing seven people and sending a fireball into the evening sky.
The plane grazed a house before plowing into the four-story building. A thick mist shrouded the neighbourhood at the time of the crash, though its cause was still unknown.
"It was horrible. I heard the plane flying very low, then I heard the explosion," neighbour Camille Avfert told the news agency. "We ran out onto the street and saw fire."
Emergency crews recovered victims' badly burned bodies, while rescuers evacuated an unspecified number of injured people in stable condition, Quito fire chief Atahualpa Sanchez said.
An army statement said three soldiers on the plane had died: the pilot, a major; the co-pilot, a lieutenant; and the mechanic. The pilot's wife and son were also killed.
Two other people on the ground died, including a woman identified as Elena Reascos, the mother of a 9-year-old boy, the Red Cross reported.
Red Cross official Henry Ochoa told broadcaster Ecuavisa that seven bodies had been found, but "there may be another person or more underneath the fuselage."