**A small aircraft has crashed in Palo Alto, California, shortly after take-off, hitting two houses.**All three people on board the twin-engine plane died in the crash, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration told US media.
He said the Cessna 310 had “crashed under unknown circumstances”, but eyewitnesses said it hit a power line.
There are no reported casualties on the ground, even though two of the houses hit caught fire.
Bad weather
The plane took off from Palo Alto Airport and was headed for Hawthorne Municipal Airport in southern California.
A resident told local news station KTVU that she saw the plane hit a power line before it exploded and hit the two homes.
The woman said that one of the homes operates as a day care centre, but that there were no children in it at the the time of the crash, which happened just before 0800 local time (1600 GMT).
The area was experiencing poor visibility at the time of the accident, with thick fog grounding a number of Southwest Airlines flights.
Widespread power cuts have been reported in the wake of the crash.