Light plane crashes onto nat'l highway in Osaka Pref

OSAKA, Aug. 19 Kyodo - A twin-seat light plane on Tuesday morning crashed at an intersection on a national highway in Yao, Osaka Prefecture, injuring two people on board, police said.

No others were hurt, although the Cessna TU206F, a single-engine propeller plane, went down on a busy street surrounded by office buildings, factories andhouses, they said.

The two -- Keiji Matsuo, 34, who was flying the plane operated by First Flying Co. in Yao, and Misao Sango, a 57-year-old photographer with Tokyo-based Kyoritsu air Co. -- got out of the badly damaged plane on their own with minorinjuries, according to the police.

After leaving Yao Airport at around 9 a.m. for aerial photographing, the plane turned over Osaka to return due to bad weather. It went down on its way back tothe airport, the police said.

The plane asked the airport traffic controllers at 10:04 a.m. for an emergency landing, obtained permission for the landing at around 10:07 a.m. and crashedabout two minutes later.

Matsuo, the pilot, was quoted as telling the police that the engine stopped atan altitude of 150 meters, forcing the plane to make a crash landing.

While the police suspect engine trouble caused the accident, the transport ministry sent two Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commissionofficers to investigate the accident.

A 58-year-old man working near the crash site said he thought a trafficaccident had occurred when he heard the noise of the crash.

''I saw the smashed plane from the window of my office,'' he said. ''I never thought a plane would crash in a place like this.''