A small plane has crashed into the parking lot at a retirement community in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, injuring the five people on board and damaging about a dozen vehicles.

The plane, a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza, crashed at 3.18pm Sunday local time (Monday AEDT) on the property of Brethren Village retirement community in Manheim Township

Manheim Township Fire chief Scott Little said five people were on board and were transported to local hospitals.

About a dozen cars were damaged, five “severely”, officials said. There was no structural damage to the retirement community building and no one on the ground was injured, Little said.

Video of the scene shows the wreckage of the plane engulfed in flames and dark smoke. The fire has since been put out using “copious amounts of water,” Little said.

One witness said the plane crashed shortly after takeoff.

“It was pretty high, but then it started veering left, and suddenly it nose-dived sideways while continuing to turn left,” Brian Pipkin told CNN.

Pipkin said he rushed to the parking lot of the retirement centre, where he saw the cockpit of the plane engulfed in flames.

He described the intense heat as “feeling like opening an oven set to 500 degrees when you open the door and it hits your face.”

“It was so hot,” he said. “I was getting closer, praying to God that nothing would blow up.”

In Philadelphia, all six passengers and one person on the ground were killed when a medical evacuation jet crashed on January 31.

The pilot reported the plane had an open door, in a radio conversation with an air traffic controller. The controller instructed the pilot to “pull up” moments before the crash.

The plane was scheduled to depart from Lancaster Airport, just north of the crash site and was headed towards Springfield, Ohio.

This story has been updated with additional information.