Neighbors witness plane crash in Richwood - KNOE 8 News; KNOE-TV; KNOE.com |

RICHWOOD, La. (KNOE 8 News) - People who live in the neighborhood's surrounding the site where a plane went down Thursday, say they heard and saw everything.

Around 1:45 on Thursday afternoon, the Monroe Regional Airport received a call from a single engine airplane having trouble with its landing gear. Four minutes later, the plane disappeared from the radar and around that time, neighbors who live in a nearby Richwood neighborhood heard a loud booming noise.

The plane had crashed to the ground in the middle of woods several miles from its landing target. Shelia Dixon says the noise shook her house. "I just heard a big crash boom, I thought it was thunder and when I came out here all I saw was black smoke."

Only a few streets away, Derrick Harrison was walking his dogs in the woods near his home, when he got a first hand look of the crash. "I looked up in the sky and saw the plane out of control it started twirling in a lot of circles, it went straight the ground and exploded," said Harrison and says he was standing less than a half mile away. Because he was close enough, Harrison says he could see the color of the plane as it went down, filling the air with fire and smoke.

Not sparing a moment, Harrison called for help. "After I saw that, I ran out of the woods and called 911 on my cell phone," Many neighbors spent much of the afternoon watching crews secure the perimeters around the crash site. "It's tragic, I feel for the family," said Dixon.