Business jet crash in San Diego neighborhood leaves multiple people dead, officials say
CNN
By Chelsea Bailey, Aaron Cooper, Pete Muntean, Alaa Elassar, CNN
San Diego (CNN) — Multiple people have died after a business jet slammed into homes in a San Diego military housing community just before 4 a.m. Thursday, spilling jet fuel down the street that ignited several cars, authorities said.
It is unclear how many people were onboard the jet, but all the fatalities appear to be from the plane, San Diego Fire Assistant Chief Dan Eddy said during a press conference on Thursday.
First responders quickly rushed to quell the flames as residents helped evacuate their neighbors from the homes, authorities said.
Hours later, the sun rose over charred ruins of a home badly damaged from the plane, which gouged a hole in the side of the house and collapsed the roof onto a car below.
“I can’t quite put words to describe what this scene looked like but with the jet fuel running down the streets and everything on fire all at once, it was pretty horrific to see,” Scott Wahl, San Diego Police Chief, said during the press conference.
The San Diego police department later confirmed one person has been hospitalized and two others were treated and released following the incident.
San Diego Fire department told CNN that a Cessna 550 airplane, often called a Citation, “crashed near Montgomery Executive Airport around 3:45 am” Thursday.
The private jet is commonly used for business travel and can carry eight to ten people.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the crash.
Eddy told the Associated Press it was very foggy at the time the private plane crashed. “You could barely see in front of you,” he said.
Visibility was down to half a mile with low cloud ceilings around the time of the crash, weather observation data shows.
At a news conference Thursday, Eddy said there was “more than one” fatality aboard the plane, but the FAA is working to confirm how many people were registered travelers.
“I can tell you that there are multiple homes, upwards of 10 homes, that were affected,” Eddy said at the conference. “Also when it hit the street, as the jet fuel went down, it took out every single car.”
Video captured by a neighborhood resident who asked to remain anonymous shows flames engulfing vehicles lining both sides of the street shortly after the crash, as their car alarms blared.
The resident told CNN they were awakened by a loud boom and their house began shaking. The man ran outside to see the whole street ablaze and grabbed a hose to begin spraying down his yard, he said, then he decided to evacuate the area.
He told CNN he also helped police knock on his neighbors doors so they could evacuate.
Captain Robert Heely, Commanding Officer of Naval Base San Diego, said the neighborhood is “one of the largest military housing units in the world.”
“Certainly we have a lot of military families that are impacted,” Heely said, before adding his condolences to the families of those on board the plane.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria vowed the city will continue to support those affected.
“They are part of a military community that makes up our city – proud partners of our community – and we will support them for as long as it takes to make sure that we get back to good here,” he said.
According to the flight tracking site FlightAware, the Citation took off from Teterboro Airport, just outside of New York City, late Wednesday night.
The plane stopped in Wichita, Kansas for about an hour before flying on to San Diego.
The pilot announced on the radio the plane was three miles away from a planned landing on runway 28 at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport, according to a recording from the website LiveATC.net.
There was no sign of any problem, and no emergency was declared.
The airport has a control tower, but it is not staffed in the overnight hours so pilots announce their intentions to any other pilots listening on the “common traffic advisory frequency.”
The Citation, according to FAA records, is owned by a company in Alaska and was built in 1985.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
CNN’s Derek Van Dam, Monica Garrett, Alexandra Skores and Alaa Elassar contributed to this report.
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