Local emergency responders and a Lifeline team member work on one of the people in a light plane crash Thursday evening. A Cessna crashed through a tree then into Matt Fox’s Indiana home. Condition of the occupants of the plane was unknown.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Emergency responders had to pull two men from a single-engine plane after it crashed into a home near a local airport in western Indiana Thursday evening.

“We had two patients who were extricated from the aircraft,” Josh Craft of the Otter Creek Fire Department told reporters. “The extent of the injuries are unknown at this time. We do not know why the aircraft crashed. There will be an ongoing investigation.”

Both men were airlifted from the site by helicopter.

Vigo County Sheriff Greg Ewing also was at the crash site in North Terre Haute, Indiana.

“It looks like it was coming from the east [toward Sky King Airport]. It clipped those tree limbs right over there,” Ewing said. “My assumption would be it was headed for a landing.”

The Federal Aviation Administration registry shows the plane’s tail numbers registered to a single-engine Cessna Model 172N.

Ewing and Craft said the FAA had been notified, and its investigators were expected to arrive Friday morning.

No people were inside the home when the airplane struck, resident Matt Fox said.

Getting the men out of the wreckage was not easy for authorities.

“It obviously was a difficult extrication, not something we normally would train for,” Craft said. “But we worked quickly and worked as a team and got both patients out of the aircraft and loaded into helicopters.”

“One of the main concerns initially when the fire department arrived was the fuselage and the fuel that is held in the wings leaking into the house,” Ewing added. “That’s why you saw the fire department using foam to kind of blanket the area to prevent any type of fire because aircraft fuel is very flammable.”

Despite the risk, there were no reports of flames at the scene.

Quincey and Penni Smith said they’d lived in the neighborhood for about 10 years, and this was the first time they’d seen a plane hit a house despite close proximity of homes to Sky King Airport.

Penni Smith called 911 after the crash, the Smiths said.

“I heard the initial crash from the trees, where it hit,” Quincey Smith said. “It sounded almost like a dump truck, like when they pick up dumpsters and slam ‘em down. It sounded like that, but it had a different sound to it.”

Ewing said this crash was a first for him, too.

“I don’t know if in my career of 26 years [in law enforcement] — we’ve had plane crashes — but I don’t know that I’ve ever worked a plane crashing into a house,” Ewing said.

Hughes writes for the Terre Haute, Indiana Tribune Star.