Sunah Kim was waiting for her son at a weeklong camp at Tac City Airsoft training center in Fullerton on Thursday afternoon when people rushed in screaming that they had heard a loud crash and saw dark clouds of billowing smoke nearby.
“They were yelling, ‘holy s—,’ there was a crash,” camp referee Peter Roberts said. “I thought they were talking about something else, not one that happened right next to us.”
Kim and a center employee raced to her vehicle and drove around the corner to find a furniture warehouse fully engulfed in flames. A small plane from Fullerton Airport had just crashed into the building.
Kim, a nurse who lives in Seal Beach, said she had worked on trauma teams previously and couldn’t believe she just happened to be nearby.
Kim said she entered a “chaotic scene” with badly burned workers, pieces of the aircraft’s wreckage and tools and furniture strewn about.
Two occupants of the plane were killed and 18 people on the ground were injured in the crash, authorities said.
A small plane crashed through the roof of a commercial building just east of Fullerton Airport.
(OnScene.tv)
The names of those killed had not been officially released as of Friday evening, but in an Instagram post, the Huntington Beach High School soccer team identified them as junior soccer player Kelly Reid and her father, Pascal. Pascal Reid of Huntington Beach was the registered owner of the plane, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
“Yesterday our soccer family suffered an unimaginable loss. Kelly Reid and her father Pascal were tragically lost in a plane crash,” the post states. “Kelly was an amazing girl … genuine and kind with such passion for life.”
The crash occurred at the warehouse in the 2300 block of Raymer Avenue just after 2 p.m. Thursday. Authorities identified the aircraft as an experimental, single-engine Van’s RV-10.
Video from a security camera captured the moment the plane hit the roof of the Michael Nicholas Designs furniture warehouse store, exploding in a fireball and sending thick clouds of dark smoke and bright orange flames into the sky.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators said the plane had climbed about 900 feet after takeoff but then the pilot immediately called back to the control tower and asked if he could return. The tower cleared the pilot to land and the pilot made a 180-degree left turn, then flew downwind and crashed into the building, authorities said.
On Friday, an employee from the furniture store waited outside for a call from her supervisor. She wanted to get access to some medicine and personal items she had left in her desk.
“They just told us to leave everything and we did, and now we can’t get it for who knows how long,” said the employee, who identified herself only as Katerina, citing fear of retaliation. “Some people left cars here because we were told that the investigators needed everything untouched.”
Rescue personnel tend to the injured after a small plane crashed through the roof of a warehouse in Fullerton.
(OnScene.tv)
Katerina was inside in a different part of the warehouse when the plane crashed into the building. She said she “heard the terrible sound” and then saw the translucent curtains that separated her department from another catch fire.
“We just started screaming and ran out,” she said.
Katerina and dozens of employees escaped out the back entrance.
“We’re in the middle of a furniture warehouse,” she said. “I still can’t believe what happened.”
Kim, the 16-year Cedars-Sinai clinical nurse, said she was impressed with how people came together in crisis.
“In that moment, when you’re in there, you’re trying to do anything you can to help,” Kim said. “The Tac City staff showed bravery in recognizing what was going on and responding.”
She and the Tac City employee immediately tended to wounds, while triaging injured workers, prioritizing those most badly burned.
“We moved those who needed to see a burn unit immediately from others so when emergency personnel arrived, they knew who to help first,” Kim said. “I had my small emergency kit in my car and did as much as I could.”
Kim said that she continued to work as firefighters, paramedics and others arrived on the scene.
“I think they allowed us to continue to help because they were grateful for the help.”
