PHILLY KILLZ

A student pilot practicing takeoffs and landings for his flight test crashed a small plane into a warehouse parking lot Thursday, killing the pilot and an instructor.

The plane, a Grumman AA-1C, went down near Northeast Philadelphia Airport just before noon, first hitting the parking lot and then skidding under a row of trailers parked along the T.J. Maxx warehouse. No one on the ground was hurt and the fire was under control within 20 minutes, officials said.

The control tower had just told the student pilot to make a right turn, but he apparently made the turn to steep, said Herbert Hortman, the owner of Hortman Aviation Services Inc., a flight school and rental company that owns the plane.

The National Weather Service reported that the wind was blowing at around 10 mph at the time of the crash, but Hortman said it should not have been a factor.

The student was making final preparations for his flight test and the instructor was a veteran pilot, Hortman said. The plane was a few hundred feet off the ground at the time of the accident, Hortman said. There were no signs of mechanical failure or other problems before the crash.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate, said Holly Baker, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman in Atlantic City, N.J.

The names of the victims were not released.

Northeast Philadelphia Airport is the smaller of the city's two airports. Both it and Philadelphia International Airport, which is at the other end of the city, are owned and operated by the city government.

Airport spokeswoman Phyllis VanIstendal referred calls to Hortman Aviation.

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