08/04/2008

Associated Press

A single-engine plane crashed into a coastal home where a family was vacationing Monday, injuring three people and leaving three children unaccounted for, authorities said.

A city official said it appeared the plane hit a tree and then crashed into the house. A neighbor said there was thick fog at the time of the crash.

A mother and two children were being flown to Portland for treatment, said Michael Griffiths, executive director of the regional emergency transport consortium Life Flight.

There was no immediate word on the fate of the pilot, nor official word about passengers.

Gearhart City Administrator Dennis McNally said the family members were on in the home on vacation.

He said in a statement that an adult and two children had been taken to the hospital, and three children were listed as unaccounted for.

An explosion was reported about 20 seconds after the crash, McNally said.

A second house was reported to be damaged.

Tourist magazine editor Rebecca Herren lives about a block and a half from the crash site and said she was in bed between 6:30 a.m. and 7 a.m.

"I heard the plane above and thought, 'Gosh, it's awfully low and awfully early, for one thing,' " she said,

The explosion shook her house and was followed by two smaller explosions, she said. The city said homes were rocked for up to a half mile away.

Part of a golf course separates her house from the crash site, Herren said, and on a clear day she would be able to see it.

"Because it was so foggy, I couldn't see any smoke plumes," she said. "Then I heard the sirens start."