PLAINVILLE, Mass. -- A small plane crashed into a house Sunday evening, killing three people on board, police said, but residents managed to flee as fire engulfed the home.

The Beechcraft BE36 aircraft crashed into the house at about 5:45 p.m. Sunday, said Jim Peters of the Federal Aviation Administration. It had taken off from Lancaster Airport in Pennsylvania and was headed to Norwood Memorial Airport in Massachusetts.

Fire crews extinguished the blaze nearly three hours after the crash in Plainville, about 30 miles southwest of Boston, said Massachusetts State Police spokesman Dave Procopio. He said the residents escaped and preliminary reports show three people in the plane were killed.

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The pilot told an air traffic controller he was experiencing engine trouble, CBS Boston reports.

"We've got a real bad vibration. We're losing engines," the pilot told the controller not long before the crash, CBS Boston reported.

The plane wound up behind the two-story colonial, where a section of the tail and a charred wing rested on a hillside in the yard.

Neighbors reported hearing something amiss as the plane flew over their homes.

Mike Brown tells The Sun Chronicle he was outside barbecuing when he heard the plane, looked up and saw it start to bank. He said the engine sounded like it was sputtering and then heard a crash and saw smoke.

The NTSB is expected to arrive at the crash site Monday.

The identities of the dead won't be released until the NTSB has notified their families, Peters said.