Peter Scullin and his wife had just left the Calder Freeway, on their way back to Melbourne from the country, and were driving directly under a light plane when it hit the DFO Essendon shopping centre on Tuesday morning.

"There was a massive ball of flame – I could feel the heat even though my wife was driving and I was in the passenger seat with my window closed," said Mr Scullin.

Immediately after, Mr Scullin said, "parts of the plane landed on the beginning of the road on-ramp".

Mr Scullin said the explosion had been "just like you see on ... in a movie, where you see these special effects. The ball of flame went 30 or 40 feet into the air. We got out to see whether the outside of the car had had any paint blistering".

The couple pulled up, amid "a burning smell that was a combination of aviation fuel and an explosion".

"And we thought 'My God, how lucky are we that we are still here?' We both looked at each other and thought that was the closest to death we are going to come."

Soon after, Mr Scullin learnt there were five people on board the plane. "What a terrifying moment on that plane it must have been."

Mr Scullin, a former mayor of a bayside council and a relative of former Prime Minister James Scullin, questioned the wisdom of having allowed the airport to expand with retail uses.

He said the pilot appeared to be trying to gain control of the plane when it hit the corner of the DFO.

"But it could just have easily landed in the middle of the DFO," he said. "You've got to ask questions about whether this was an accident that was always going to happen."