The crash happened in the Warden Hill area, about 2.5 miles from Gloucestershire Airport near Cheltenham in the UK at 10.45am.
The owner of the house in Langdale Road was uninjured when the single engine four-seater Cirrus SR22 crashed in their garden.
Police said that during the incident the pilot deployed the plane's parachute and avoided major injuries.
Eyewitness Jeannie Bowers, 46, was standing in her partner's garden when she saw the drama unfold.
"I was just making a coffee and I heard a plane in trouble," she said. "I looked up and there was a big pop and banging sound and then a whoosh of air.
"The parachute went up and the plane slowly came down towards the ground gently turning and hanging from this parachute just towards me.
"It just gently came down and landed on the conifers in Karen's garden... it managed to miss every single building - the shed, the summer house and greenhouse.”
came home to find a plane in my next door neighbour's garden wtfff twitter.com/_jessiebowers/…
— jess (@_jessiebowers) June 6, 2013
John Oliver, of South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said the pilot was very lucky.
"He refused to be taken to hospital for further checks. He was very lucky. It was also lucky that no one else was injured, given where the pilot came down. There could have been a lot of casualties."
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch has been informed.
