Mother-of-two Helen Monahan escaped with her life after leaving home five minutes earlier than usual to pick up her children.

The 36-year-old mother left early to pick up her two sons, Harley, six, and Norton, five, from Shoreham First School after receiving a call from her friend who was stuck in traffic.

It was only when she arrived at the playground that she was told a plane had crashed in West Street - on her house.

She said: "I had a call from my friend asking me if I could pick up her children too because she was stuck in traffic, so I left a few minutes early.

"When I got to the playground someone said a plane had gone down in the High Street.

"I was worried about my friend in traffic but then I was told it had crashed in West Street, on my house. I couldn't believe it. I am usually in at that time."

Mrs Monahan immediately raced back to her three-bedroom terraced home, which she has shared with her 33-year-old husband Marcus for eight years.

She said: "It looked like a scene from a film. There were bits of metal everywhere and the nose cone was in the pond."

Mr Monahan, a heating engineer, was working in Hove when he heard the news. At first he thought it was a joke.

However, he raced back to discover the upstairs of his home had been destroyed.

As soon as the couple realised no one was injured, their concern switched to their rescue kitten JD, which they had got only a week earlier.

To their relief the white cat was found by firefighters huddled behind their sofa, two hours after the plane crashed into the house.

Mr Monahan said: "She looked pretty frightened and I am sure she is a little traumatised."

Mrs Monahan added: "The poor thing has been through so much. Now she has been rescued twice in one week."

The couple's treasured Harley Davidson motorbike was in the adjacent garage and last night they were waiting to see if it had come through unscathed.

The Monahans were briefly allowed into their house last night to collect belongings before leaving to stay with relatives in Shoreham.

Meanwhile, a cherry picker was brought in to continue working on the house, which may have to be demolished.

Mrs Monahan said: "We finally got the house how we liked it and now this happens.

"I often spotted planes flying overhead when I sat in the garden in the summer but I was never really worried about them. I was more concerned about being so close to the train line."

Accident investigators were expected to arrive from Farnborough last night to take over the investigation from Sussex Police.

Neighbours and passers-by, who had witnessed the crash earlier in the day, waited anxiously while the emergency services moved in. Staff at the nearby Shoreham health centre had also watched the plane come down.

One worker said: "We were on the first floor, sitting and talking, when we saw the plane pass overhead. It was heading in the direction of the airport.

"It was very, very low and it was clear there was something wrong. A few seconds later we heard a loud bang and my colleague immediately called 999.

"I'm amazed no one was badly hurt. It could have been really nasty if the plane had landed in the street or on top of the health centre or the library."

Neighbour Judith Adams said: "The first I knew about something being wrong was when I heard the crash.

"I thought another train had come off the track but when I looked around me I saw the plane."

Jackie Savage, of Victoria Road, was sitting in her lounge when the plane plummeted into the garden in the street behind her house.

She said: "It sounded like a lorry shedding its load. Then we heard the fire engines coming down the road.

"The firemen were climbing over the fence to get to the plane. We could just see it from our bedroom window, sitting in the back garden with its tail in the air.

"I felt sick for the people at that house.

"All the neighbours came rushing up here to find out if they could help. We saw the pilot had climbed out but he seemed OK, just a gash to his head.

"I went into the garden and saw the roof was missing. I was shocked. It could have taken all the houses with it if it had come down at a different angle."

David Wilson, whose house in Victoria Road backs on to the West Street house, heard the smash and rushed out to see the plane in his neighbour's garden.

He shouted to the pilot to make sure he was all right and when the pilot replied "Yes", he rushed in to tell his partner Shirley Hamill to call the emergency services.

He grabbed a towel and ran back to give it to pilot Donald Campbell who was trying to stem the blood flowing from his head.

Mr Wilson said: "It was scary. Fuel was pouring off the wings, it was an incredible stink but the pilot had the presence of mind to switch everything off. He was in an awful mess."

Mr Wilson said the pilot may have been aiming for a gap where the gardens backed on to each other.

He said: "The more I think about it, the more I think it could have been our house.

"It looks like he was coming straight for us by the angle of the plane but I don't know if he spun round.

"It could have been disastrous. He has done marvellously well not to demolish the whole row of houses - and he's alive."

Veterinarian Martin Edmonds, of Anicare practice in West Street, said: "We just heard a whoosh. It sounded like someone had dumped a load of shingle in the garden.

"I was working but when I went outside I heard people saying a plane had taken the roof off a house. I couldn't believe it.

"It's lucky the plane didn't come down on the street or there would have been an even bigger mess."

Sgt Stephen Moss, of Hove police, said: "It was very close indeed because if it had been a few feet either way, you would be looking at a fatal injury."