US crash witness: it sounded like plane in distress

A pilot has died after an aircraft operated by a military contractor out of Nellis Air Force Base crashed in a nearby residential area, authorities in Las Vegas said Monday.

A statement attributed to base spokesman Lt. Col. Bryon McGarry confirmed the crash occurred about 2:30 p.m. Florida-based company Draken US owned the aircraft, and said in a statement that the pilot, whose name has not been released, had died and no one else was on board.

It's unclear whether there were injuries to people on the ground.

Anthony Milano, a plane spotter who watches and photographs military aircraft, said he saw smoke coming from the crash site.

"It looked like it was coming from a single small spot. It didn't look like a big eruption or anything. It was small and then kind of just puffed up at the top."

John Hammond, who lives in the area where the plane went down, said the plane was flying very low, about one thousand feet (305 meters) off the ground. He also said the plane's engines sounded like they were malfunctioning.

"I heard a plane that sounded like it was a prop plane. It sounded like it was a tourist plane. But you know if the jet engines were malfunctioning, it might sound like a prop. It sounded like a plane in distress."

Police cordoned off the neighborhood about 7 miles (11 kilometers) northeast of downtown Las Vegas.

Nellis is best known internationally as host of periodic training exercises where U.S. and allied pilots conduct mock battles over a restricted military reserve in central Nevada that is half the size of the state of New Jersey.

Aircraft based at Nellis include F-16 Falcon and F-22 Raptor fighter jets and A-10 Warthog attack jets.