By: Las Vegas Now Staff
Today's plane crash is a frightening reminder for another North Las Vegas family who narrowly escaped the same fate two years ago. And the young children who witnessed that crash say they'll never forget what they saw.
Most of us go our whole lives without ever having to see something as awful as a plane crash. But it was right there on Jones near Rancho that one North Las Vegas family with five children saw a small plane crash and explode into a ball of flames.
“We heard the metal grinding down Jones before the plane exploded,” said Tina Montesano.
It was November of 2006.
“The noise was horrendous, the explosion was so loud it shook everything in the house,” said Tina.
The vivid memories of that day haunt this North Las Vegas mother of five — who says her young children were jumping on their trampoline in the backyard when suddenly….
“It went down, [spun] around and hit the wall and hit a gate and hit a pole, spun around — then people came running out and it exploded,” said Steven Montesano.
The six-seater plane came to a crashing halt on Jones — just three houses away from the Montesanos' home — strewing twisted metal, burning jet fuel and live ammunition that had been on board the plane all over the street.
The loud screeching noise that preceding the explosion prompted the whole neighborhood to run outside and see what happened — including little Ann Marie, who was only 3 at the time. “It was horrible!” she said.
And though nearly two years have passed, Ann Marie says she still dreams about plane crashes. Fortunately, no one died in this crash but the traumatic event left its mark on this family in other ways.
“Every time I see a plane go over my house, I worry that it's gonna fall on my home,” said Tina.
The sights and sounds of small aircraft are non-stop in this neighborhood just west of the North Las Vegas airport. In fact, while interviewing the family's oldest son, two planes could be seen in the background passing overhead in close proximity of each other.
“I never thought I was in the danger zone until one Sunday afternoon when a plane fell right out of the sky and blew up on my street,” said Tina.
The Montesanos say they were aware of the fact that they were buying a house near an airport — they say they just didn't know it was one of the most dangerous airports in the nation.
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