News Service from House Harris

NSW: Sadness mingles with relief for residents of plane crash St

SYDNEY, Dec 18 AAP - Friends and neighbours gathered in the south-western Sydney suburb of Casula with a mixture of sadness and relief after a light plane crashed into a family home.

Sadness, because two women, believed aged 18 and 21, died when their single-engine Liberty nose-dived into the back of the two-storey house after colliding with another plane mid-air.

Relief, because Bianca and Steven Contina and their two-week-old baby were not at their Flame Tree St home at the time.

Backing onto the Hume highway, Casula's winding streets are made up of brand new homes and young families.

Bunched closely, the large housing blocks are surrounded by near empty plots of land dotted with thirsty looking trees.

The Continas had only just moved in, the landscaping still a work in progress.

Standing in the 30 degree heat for over four hours with no breeze, some neighbours couldn't believe what had happened.

"First the shooting, now this," said Deanna Gattellari, referring to the murder of service station attendant Melissa Cook, killed by her ex-husband at a nearby BP service station just two days earlier.

"What a Christmas."

At the back of the house, a group of Basair Aviation College students and friends of the pilots appeared with flowers.

One group of friends held a bunch of white flowers and convinced a policeman to lay them near the site.

Nearby, two young kids talk loudly about what happened.

One of them gestures with his hands - "the plane went like this" - before he brings his palms together and says "boom".