Early Friday morning, a small aircraft made an emergency landing on a street in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, resulting in critical injuries to two individuals, as per reports.

The aircraft, identified as a single-engine Piper Comanche, crashed and erupted into flames near the intersection of Hawthorne Boulevard and 126th Street in Hawthorne, California.

Rescue teams rushed the pilot and passenger to a local hospital, both of whom remain in serious condition. According to KTLA news, the plane was en route to Hawthorne Municipal Airport, roughly two miles away, when the incident occurred.

‘We got fortunate’

“The good news is that no one on the ground was harmed,” stated Captain Sheila Kellher Berkoh of the Los Angeles Fire Department to KTLA. “The damage to the surroundings appears minimal, so we were quite fortunate with the landing spot of the plane.”

Authorities from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are currently investigating the cause of the crash.

This is an evolving news story that will be updated.