Airport worker says things didn't look right before small plane crash in SoCal

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KGO) -- An airport worker says things did not look right when a small plane took off from Southern California before crashing into homes in Riverside Monday.

An eyewitness who saw the victims and the plane just moments before the deadly crash says she saw the plane try to take off at least three times in heavy rain

ABC News spoke to Delmy Pennington, co-owner of the D and D Airport Café.

RELATED: 3 dead after small plane crashes into SoCal neighborhood

Pennington says she saw the plane return to the terminal and the people on the plane went to her cafe.

Then she says they left in a hurry without ordering anything and headed off to the plane.

She says when they took off it did not look right. "The back of the airplane went really funny...and I asked some pilots and they said it's not supposed to do that," Pennington said. "I was so worried. Even in the last moment they left I thought why are they leaving?"

Pennington says the moment they left the rain stopped for a brief moment and she thinks maybe that's why they left so quickly - to try to catch a break in the storm.

Pennington says thirty minutes later, her daughter called to tell her about a small airplane that had crashed and was on the news.

She says she knew immediately it was their plane.

The NTSB is investigating the cause of the crash.