The Associated Press

Fri, Aug 22, 2008 (7:54 a.m.)

A fire official says two people are dead and a third is hospitalized with "severe trauma" after an experimental aircraft crashed into a house near the North Las Vegas Airport.

Deputy North Las Vegas Fire Chief Kevin Brame says it appears the pilot and one person in the house was killed. He says another person in the house was taken to University Medical Center in Las Vegas in critical condition.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor says the rear-propeller Velocity 173 RG aircraft crashed at 6:28 a.m. Friday, shortly after taking off from the North Las Vegas airport.

Gregor says the male pilot radioed that he wasn't gaining altitude and was going to crash moments before the aircraft hit the house, which burst into flames.

Brame says firefighters quickly doused the intense fire in the single-family home in a neighborhood not far from the end of the North Las Vegas Airport runway.

Gregor says the aircraft was certified for flight in 2002, and was owned by a Las Vegas resident. No names have been released.