WEST CARROLLTON - A small, twin-engine plane that crashed into a residential neighborhood, killing the pilot, used an unusually long stretch of runway to get into the air, an airport official said Thursday.

“There must have been some sort of power situation with the engines,” said Darrell Montgomery, manager of Moraine Airpark. He said the plane used about two-thirds of the 3,500-foot runway.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol identified the pilot as Carl Bernardi, 65, of Easton, Md.

Mr. Montgomery said the plane had been stored at the airpark without being flown for about eight months. He said people sometimes showed up to work on it.

Residents watched from porches and cars Wednesday as the plane sputtered over the neighborhood in this city of 14,000 people just south of Dayton.

The plane crashed Wednesday in the front lawn of an unoccupied house and caught fire. The flames spread to the front of the two-story house, melting the vinyl siding, and damaged a nearby business and car. No one on the ground was injured, fire Chief Jack Keister said.

“It started to sputter, he lost altitude, it just went down right into the yard and exploded like a ball of fire, like a volcano,” said Sharon Keiper, 52, adding she could feel the heat from where she stood on a porch across the street.

“It was unreal,” said Ms. Keiper, 52, who had been visiting a friend.

Rescue workers recovered the pilot's body, which was taken to the Montgomery County coroner's office. The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating the crash.

The charred, twisted wreckage of the twin-engine 1968 Beagle rested in a crater in the yard. What was left of the tail leaned against the blackened porch.

Had she not agreed earlier in the day to swap shifts with a co-worker at a candy store, Bonnie Riddlebarger would have been in the burning home. Ms. Riddlebarger, 65, lives in an addition on the back of the house and said the front unit was unoccupied.

“I'm just so thankful I wasn't here,” she said. “I'm just so thankful that God made it turn out this way. Everyone was looking desperately for me.”

Ms. Riddlebarger, who said she is not insured, will stay with daughters in the area.

Resident Earl Wikle, 38, said he and his wife were driving when they saw the plane wobbling with its landing gear up. It appeared the pilot was trying to force the plane to lift, Mr. Wikle said.

Kayla Layton, 11, was playing outside about a block away when the plane started to drop.

“It made a swirl and then went into the ground,” she said.

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