An elderly woman inside the home was stunned but not injured in Thursday evening's wreck, neighbors said.
Only the pilot was aboard the single-engine plane, which flipped after punching a hole in the home's roof, sparking a small fire in the attic, said Jerry Vandenberg of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
Residents rushed to the crash scene with garden hoses before breaking a window and helping firefighters pull the pilot out. ``Got the hose on first, to put the fire out,'' rescuer Steve Butorovich told KCAL-TV. ``His legs were on fire, his hands were on fire.''
The pilot was identified by the Daily Breeze newspaper as Jerry Hoke of Torrance. He was listed in critical condition.
Hoke had been cleared to land at Torrance Municipal Airport and told controllers he was running low on fuel, said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Donn Walker. The plane hit some utility lines and clipped a large tree before it nose-dived into the home, witnesses said.
It was the fourth plane to crash into a Southern California home or apartment in the past 18 months.
``This is some of the most congested airspace in the country,'' Walker said. ``When you have a lot of planes in the sky, there are going to be crashes. And over a very congested area like Los Angeles, it's going to crash in a populated area.''
Lomita is about 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.
