Executive jet crashes in Maryland house, kills six

An executive jet crashed into a Maryland neighborhood on Monday, killing three people aboard the plane and three more on the ground, a fire official said.

The Embraer SA twin-engine Phenom 100 crashed into a home about one mile (1.6 km) from the Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg, a Washington suburb, county fire department spokesman Pete Piringer told a news conference.

Three people aboard the plane were killed and a mother and two children died in the home, he said in a Tweet.

The crash sparked a fire that destroyed two homes, and three others were damaged. Piringer said crews had contained the fires but some jet fuel had leaked into a stream.

A Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said the plane went down on its way back to the airport. The National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement that it was investigating the crash.

Witnesses told local media that the plane had been circling with the wheels down, and looked as if it was struggling for control.