08:32 AM PDT on Tuesday, July 18, 2006

By AP and kgw.com Staff

HILLSBORO, Ore. -- A vintage British fighter jet crashed into a densely populated neighborhood near an airport during an air show Sunday afternoon, exploding, destroying a home and killing the pilot.

KGW photo

The plane demolished one home and damaged three others when it crashed in Hillsboro during the 2006 air show.

Fire officials said no residents or others on the ground were hurt.

The 1951 jet was taking off from the Hillsboro Airport to return to California when it went down, said Connie King, a spokeswoman for the Hillsboro Fire Department.

The jet slammed into a house at 4:28 p.m. and destroyed it, she said. No one was home at the time, she said.

Another house with people inside sustained "significant damage," but no one was hurt, King said. The attic exterior of a third house was damaged, and there was fire damage in the yard of another, she said.   More on homes damaged

A firefighter was treated at a local hospital for heat exhaustion and released.

Ed Kerbs, a neighborhood resident, was hosting an air show party on his lawn when the plane went down.

"As it came in, it pitched up its nose and it looked like he was trying to stay afloat," Kerbs said. "I was talking to a buddy of mine and I said 'Hey, he's flying way too low; he's not going to make it.' And then there was a plume of smoke and a bang."

Diana Halvorsen, who lives diagonally across from the house that was destroyed by the crash, said she did not see the plane before her back yard burst into flames.  More on vintage plane

"It was a noise, a huge, huge, noise," she said. The flames "shot up like a bolt of lightning."

She said it was miraculous that she, her husband Jan, and their two daughters, Kristine, 8, and Natalie, 3, escaped unharmed.

"Honestly, it was guardian angels," Halvorsen said.

The plane crashed toward the end of the two-day Hillsboro International Air Show, where the plane had been on display, but did not perform, said Steve Callaway, an air show board member.

The Federal Aviation Administration provided a tail number that indicated the plane was registered to Robert Guilford, 73, an aviation attorney from Southern California. He was killed in the crash, investigators said.  More on Guilford

According to information on his law firm's Web site, Guilford has been flying planes since 1961. His law firm, Baum Hedlund, did not return a page Sunday.  Read family statement about pilot

Air show organizers canceled the show immediately after the crash. It was the first crash in the show's 19-year history.  History of Hillsboro airport