SHIRLEY, N.Y. — The pilot of a small plane that crashed onto a Long Island street appeared to pull the nose of the aircraft above a house before smashing into a residential street, according to a witness report provided today to an investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board.

Two people were killed and a third was injured in the crash in Shirley, on eastern Long Island, late Sunday morning. NTSB investigator Brian Rayner said today that much of the single-engine plane, which landed upside-down, had been destroyed by fire.

No one on the ground was injured. Neighbors raced to the scene and tried to extinguish the flames with fire extinguishers and garden hoses.

Rayner did not identify the witness, who told of hearing a “really loud” engine over his house moments before the crash. He said the nose of the Socata TB10, known as a Tobago, climbed over the house before hitting a tree and crashing into a large construction debris container on the street.