When a small plane took the corner tip of her roof off early Saturday, Deb Moran was sound asleep on her couch in the family room.

"I did not hear a plane. All I heard was a thud," said Moran, who figured one of her dogs had knocked something over in the middle of the night.

She flipped on the lights in her house as she tried to match the sound to the expected mess. Since they were all up, she decided to let her dogs out and opened up her back door.

"I stepped out and smelled fuel," she said. In the darkness, she made out the shape of a plane and decided to call 911. She couldn’t believe how quickly first responders made it to her home at 1414 Ludwig Park Drive on the city’s north side. "The cops, it was like they appeared out of thin air."

But just as quickly as police and EMS arrived, no one, it seemed, was with the plane. Moran said she saw no movement, no people.

With the plane crash still under investigation, the names of the two who were in the plane have not been released, nor any reason given as to why one of them apparently left the scene.

One person was taken to a hospital for minor injuries, but authorities couldn’t confirm whether that person was the pilot.

Officials with the Indiana State Police said they’re assisting the Federal Aviation Administration. FAA officials could not be reached for comment Sunday and released no new information.

With the crash came onlookers. On Sunday, Moran stood outside her brick ranch and noted that gawkers were still coming by.

Even though she did not hear a plane, a neighbor across the street said he heard the plane and then it sounded like it was gliding. It took off the very tops of some trees as it came in from the south, not the flight path the residents usually see, Moran said.

Planes often come in from the west and north, she said, and usually not in the middle of the night. This crash occurred about 3:45 a.m.

It tore off the northeast corner of the roof and bent the gutters, but Moran said it was surprising the plane didn’t hit any power or cable lines.

After being evacuated early Saturday, when she went to a relative’s home, she came back in the afternoon to a fully functioning house, she said.

Moran’s back-door neighbor, Craig Chapman, has lived on Ludwig Road across from Smith Field for 27 years and can’t remember an incident of this kind.

"There’s never any problems, never no issues," Chapman said.

He did, however, take a video when geese flew into a plane that crashed into Sam’s Club on Lima Road in October 1994. Sam’s Club is located next to the airfield which is bound by Cook and Ludwig roads.

Chapman was boarding up a lake cottage on Saturday when he heard about the plane landing in Moran’s backyard.

"My sister-in-law called and wanted to know if we had an airplane in our backyard," he said.

The answer was yes.

jduffy@jg.net