WEST CARROLLTON, Ohio - A small plane crashed Wednesday in a residential neighborhood and caught fire, killing the pilot. Flames spread along the ground to two homes and a car.

        “It started to sputter, he lost altitude, it just went down right into the yard and exploded,” said Sharon Keiper, adding she could feel the heat from where she stood on a porch across the street.

        “It was unreal,” said Ms. Keiper, 52, who had been visiting a friend.

        At least one person died in the plane, and rescue workers were trying to determine if more people were onboard, Fire Chief Jack Keister said. The houses were unoccupied, and no one on the ground was injured, he said.

        The charred, twisted wreckage of the twin-engine 1968 Beagle rested in a crater in the front yard of a two-story house in this city of about 14,000 between Middletown and Dayton.

        What was left of the tail leaned against the blackened porch, and melted vinyl siding sagged from the home's walls.

        Bonnie Riddlebarger, 65, who lives in an addition on the back of the house, said the front unit was unoccupied.

        Normally, Ms. Riddlebarger is home on Wednesday afternoons, but she went to her job at a candy store this Wednesday because a co-worker asked her to switch shifts.

        “I'm just so thankful I wasn't here,” she said. “I'm just so thankful that God made it turn out this way. Everyone was looking desperately for me.”

        Ms. Riddlebarger, who said she is not insured, will stay with daughters in the area.

        A Federal Aviation Administration official was at the crash site Wednesday evening as workers tried to extract the pilot's body.

        The plane took off from Moraine Airpark, a nearby airport for small planes, said Lt. Bill Peck of the Ohio State Highway Patrol. A worker at the small airport said takeoffs and landings are not tracked.

        Resident Earl Wikle, 38, said he and his wife were driving when they saw the plane wobbling with its landing gear up. It appeared the pilot was trying to force the plane to lift, Mr. Wikle said.

        Kayla Layton, 11, was playing outside about a block away when the plane started to drop.

        “It made a swirl and then went into the ground,” she said.

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