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A single-engine plane crashed into a community center in the Katy area on Saturday morning, killing the pilot and scattering flaming debris around an empty pool, officials said.
The crash occurred shortly before 10:30 a.m. at the Mason Creek Community Center at Kingsland Boulevard and Houghton Road. The plane did not strike anyone on the ground, missing a nearby recreational center where planning for a wedding party that evening was taking place, according to Lt. Simon VanDyk of Harris County Emergency Services District 48.
The pilot was identified as Nodhir Medhora, 69, of Houston, according to a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The India native was most recently a mechanical engineer for Exxon Mobil, according to his LinkedIn page
The aircraft struck several trees before hitting the community center and breaking apart, according to preliminary information from the Federal Aviation Administration. It smashed into a storage shed containing containing pool chemicals, VanDyk said, though it was not immediately clear if the chemicals became mixed with the pool water.
Harris County haz-mat officials were called to the scene to investigate.
“It appears the plane had impacted a tree and there is an impact point where the plane came down pretty hard,” VanDyk said.
The pilot was apparently the only person aboard the plane, and the pool was empty at the time of the crash, VanDyk said.
Investigators from the FAA were en route to the scene, and the National Transportation Safety Board had been notified. The NTSB will lead the investigation into the crash, said FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford.
The flight path of the plane, a 2009 fixed-wing single-engine Cessna 172 Skyhawk, was not immediately clear.
The registered owner of the plane is BLH Visions LLC, with an address located in the Berkshire neighborhood in Houston.
Johnny Thomas, who lives in an apartment complex near the crash scene, heard the plane descending Saturday morning.
“It sounded like the plane was going to hit our apartment,” Thomas said. “We ran out to see if we can help whoever was in the plane but it was too late. The smoke was too thick.”
His wife Danielle Thomas recalled being asleep and hearing “a big boom.”
“I thought it was a motorcycle braking because it sounded like somebody was trying to stop,” she said.
The community center is located in a single-family neighborhood about 25 miles from downtown Houston and just south of Interstate 10.
Harris County Precinct 5 constable Ted Heap said the crash would have been more severe if the plan had hit one of the many homes in the Nottingham neighborhood.
“We’re just blessed there were not other injuries outside the point of impact,” Heap said.
An investigation would determine if the pilot was trying to land the plane in adjacent Rennie Park, Heap said.
Chris Guillory was driving by the community center when he heard what he thought was a chainsaw.
“I was right under it,” he said. “I heard, like, a bad chainsaw sound and I looked in my mirror and saw some branches coming down. It was crazy.”
Lionel Miranda was working at a construction site directly behind the clubhouse when he heard an explosion.
“We could see one of the wheels fly off and over the building,” he said.
Nicolas Auger, a construction superintendent on the site, said he was in his work truck when he heard the crash and explosion.
“I heard a bang and I grabbed my fire extinguisher, but the flames were too big,” Auger said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.