Two pilots, two aircraft maintenance engineers & pedestrian have died in the crash (Reuters).
As residents ran out of their homes after a small plane crashed into a construction site at a Mumbai suburb on Thursday, they saw the ghastly sight of a burning body.
"The explosions following the crash and flames leaping in the air were so huge that initially, we could not understand what had happened," said Prakash S Giri, who lives opposite the site where the 12-seater Beechcraft King Air C90 plane crashed.
All four on the plane and a pedestrian were killed.
"The toll could have been higher had the plane hit any of the high-rises around the spot. The pilot did not let this happen. I think the pilot purposefully maneuvered the plane to this site to avoid casualties," said Mr Giri, who was having lunch with his family when he heard an "explosion".
"There was a very loud explosion. Smoke and flames engulfed the area in the 50-metre radius. We rushed out... saw a burning body near the crash spot. We tried to save the man but the flames had engulfed him so completely that we could do nothing," he said.
Another resident said after the crash, there were four-five more explosions.
A witness claimed that a man living on the third floor of a nearby building had jumped from his balcony fearing that his building was going to collapse. But this has not been confirmed.
The privately-owned plane, sold in 2014 by the Uttar Pradesh government, malfunctioned shortly after its take-off for a test flight from the Juhu airstrip in the afternoon. It had been in repairs for months.