Los Angeles:

A small plane crashed into a commercial building in California on Thursday, killing at least two people and injuring 18 others, police said.

The crash occurred early in the afternoon near Fullerton Municipal Airport, 25 miles (40 kilometres) southeast of Los Angeles. The cause remains unknown.

“There are two confirmed fatalities,” Fullerton police said on X.

Active Investigation Update:

There are two confirmed fatalities, ten individuals were transported to area hospitals for treatment and eight individuals were treated and released on scene. The investigation is on going. https://t.co/CiLra4HYFv

— Fullerton PD (@FPDPIO) January 3, 2025

Additionally, 10 people were hospitalized and eight others were treated at the scene.

Investigators do not yet know if the victims were plane passengers or if they were workers at the building where it crashed, a police officer told local station KTLA.

Television footage showed a gaping hole in the roof of the building, with smoke pouring out.

A small single engine plane (N8757R) crashed into the roof of a warehouse near Fullerton Municipal Airport, US. pic.twitter.com/7dTdrE6p2Y

— Resistance War News (@ResistanceWar1) January 3, 2025

“All we hear is like a loud noise, boom, and that’s it. Then we started running out” of the building, Jerome Cruz, one of the workers who witnessed the scene, told CBS News.

The plane was a single-engine Van’s RV-10, a small model with four seats, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which has opened an investigation.

Another crash near Fullerton Airport injured two people in November.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Israeli high-tech entrepreneur Liron Petrushka and his wife Naomi were killed in a plane crash in California, the Guardian reported. The incident happened on Saturday night when the couple’s plane crashed as they were attempting to land at Truckee Tahoe airport in Northern California near the Nevada border.

The plane departed from Centennial Airport in Denver, Colorado, on Saturday at about 4.20 pm, according to FlightAware.

In a Facebook post, Truckee Tahoe airport officials wrote, ”The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are onsite investigating yesterday’s 6:38pm crash of a single-engine TBM N960LP that resulted in 2 fatalities on Union Pacific rail property south of Glenshire Drive, between the rail line and Truckee River.”

See the post here:

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the cause of the crash.

Notably, the couple were well-known Israeli tech investors and entrepreneurs living in California for the last few years. According to Fox News, Mr Petrushka started a successful tech company with his wife which later sold for $242 million. In recent years the couple had been involved in various tech initiatives and living in California. Their investments included Check, which was sold to American financial giant Intuit in 2014 for about $360 million and fintech unicorn Next Insurance. 

“We are devastated by the news of Liron and Naomi Petrushka’s tragic death. Our hearts are with the Petrushka family and their sons David, Scott, and Jordan,” wrote UpWest, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that Liron Petrushka joined in 2017. 

As per the Times of Israel, Liron Petrushka was also a former professional soccer player in Israel. 

The chairman of Petrushka’s former soccer team, Einav Hazenvald, said: “The club bows its head for the death of Liron Petrushka and his wife. Liron grew up in the club from the age of 10 and passed through all the teams, including the adults’ team. He played with me in the youth team, where we won the national championship, as well as in the adult team.”

They were survived by four children.