Family counts blessings after plane hits home

Miguel Castillo was in his backyard cleaning the swimming pool Thursday afternoon when he heard a noise.

His pregnant wife was upstairs in their North Jones Boulevard house, helping a friend search the Internet. Their napping 3-year-old son was upstairs, their teen-age daughter downstairs.

"I heard a strange noise like a basketball bouncing," said Castillo, 37. "I walked four steps and saw the explosion. I felt it on my face."

The noise he heard was a small airplane crashing into the two-story North Las Vegas home he and his family had rented for the past six months.

"I ran inside screaming for my wife," Castillo said. "I said, 'Take the kids outside with you.'

"Never did I think it was a plane."

Castillo, a construction worker, and his wife, Patricia, were home with two of their five children and a family friend. A few feet and a lot of luck separated them from disaster.

Everyone happened to be on the north side of the house when the twin-engine plane crashed into the rooms on the south side.

The only set of stairs remained intact, allowing everyone to get downstairs and out the front door of their home.

"I opened the door just a little bit and looked," Castillo said. "I saw my car on fire."

He was ushering the group down the wrap-around driveway when he heard a second blast, what he believed to be the noise of his Mercury Sable exploding.

A police officer took the group to a nearby grocery store where paramedics evaluated them.

Castillo's three other children, who were in school during the crash, were reunited with their parents a few hours later.

Aside from minor smoke inhalation, everyone was spared injury. Patricia Castillo, who is seven months pregnant, was taken to University Medical Center for an overnight evaluation Thursday.

The family's dog was also unharmed.

"Everyone is OK -- it's only material," Castillo said of the destruction, as he waited for fire investigators to allow him inside to retrieve his cell phone and important papers Friday.

The smell of smoke still in the air, Castillo pointed out where the garage, two bedrooms and a side room once were, and even joked about his mangled and charred sedan resting in the center of the chaos.

"Right now it's gray, but it used to be blue," he said.

The family plans to stay with friends while they look for a new home.

Castillo, still wearing clothing from the day of the crash, said the family is emotional but counting their blessings.

"Right now we are relaxing," he said. "I am very lucky."

Contact reporter Maggie Lillis at mlillis@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0279.