BEDFORD, Ind. — A pilot and his 8-year-old daughter were killed Monday when their small plane crashed into an in-law’s house near a southern Indiana airport, authorities said.

Indiana State Police spokesman 1st Sgt. Dave Bursten said a preliminary crash investigation leads “us to believe that this was an intentional act.”

The crash killed Eric Johnson, 47, of Bedford, and his daughter Emily, he said. The plane crashed into the residence of one of Johnson’s in-laws, Vivian Pace, Bursten said.

Authorities will not know for sure whether the crash was intentional until the National Transportation Safety Board completes its investigation, which could take up to a year, Bursten said.

Earlier, before the pilot was identified as a relative, Pace told The Times-Mail newspaper that she was in the living room of her one-story home when the plane struck the side of the building. She said everything fell off the walls.

She said she had heard a plane making a “horrible noise” before the crash.

The 11 a.m. crash happened near Virgil I. Grissom Municipal Airport, about 20 miles south of Bloomington and where the plane had been leased, state police Cpl. Eric Dunn said.

Witnesses said the plane appeared to be trying to land when it veered sharply and went out of sight, the newspaper reported on its Web site.

There were no reports of injuries on the ground, though the impact left much of the plane lodged inside the house.