Small Plane Crashes Into Simi Valley, Calif., Homes, Killing Pilot

A small plane crashed into two homes in Simi Valley, Calif., on Saturday, killing the pilot, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Ventura County Fire Department.

Residents were inside the two-story, single-family homes, and were evacuated without any injuries, the fire department said. The homes suffered structural damage and fire damage.

The identity of the pilot was not released.

Video posted on social media by the fire department showed firefighters on a roof tending to a smoking area of one of the houses.

The plane, a single engine fixed-wing Van’s Aircraft RV-10, had departed from General William J. Fox Airfield in Lancaster and was heading to Camarillo Airport near the city of Thousand Oaks before it crashed around 2:10 p.m., the F.A.A. said.

Simi Valley is a city of 125,000 people about 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

Photos from the scene showed smoke billowing shortly after the crash and, later, a gaping hole in the roof of a structure.

“The plane was flying very low and attempted to gain altitude a couple of times but looked like it could not,” an X user, who posted a photo after the crash, said on social media.