SAN DIEGO (AP) – Runway lighting was on and the weather warning system was not working. At San Diego Airport, pilots flying around the country decided to proceed with the landing, but there was a thick fog when they went up to the neighborhood, crashed into the neighborhood, boarded the plane and killed all six of them.
National Traffic Safety Commission investigator Dan Baker said authorities will work next year to determine what causes the Cessna 550 citation to crash just before 4am on Thursday. Jet carried the music executives and five others. None of the US Navy housing neighbours died, but eight people were treated for inhaling smoke from fiery crashes and non-life-threatening injuries.
The pilot said the weather conditions for landing at the small airport were not ideal, and they discussed detours to another airport while discussing visibility with air traffic controllers at the local Federal Aviation Administration tower.
The FAA had posted an official notification to the pilot that the lights were not in use, but I'm not sure if the pilot checked it. He did not discuss the lighting being turned on in air traffic control, but he was aware that the airport's weather warning system was inoperable. Ultimately, I heard the pilot said he would stick to his plans to land at Montgomery Gibbs' executive airport.
“It doesn't sound great, but we'll give it a try,” he told the air traffic controller.
The plane crashed about 2 miles (3.22 km) from the airport.
Baker said the power surge knocked out the airport's weather system, but the pilot was aware of the fog and the air traffic controller gave him weather information from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, about four miles (6.44 km) north.
Music talent agent Dave Shapiro and two employees of the music agency he co-founded, the sound talent group, were among the dead along with former drummers of the metal band Devil Wear Sprada. Shapiro, 42, has a pilot license and was listed as the owner of the plane.
The two deceased employees were Kendall Fortner, 24, an indigenous Southern California who book an agency associate, and Emma Hooke, 25.
The crash was added to the long list of aviation disasters this year, but federal officials have tried to reassure travelers that flight is the safest mode of transport and that statistics support it.
Shapiro's aircraft took off from Teterboro, New Jersey near Manhattan at about 11:15pm local time Wednesday, and stopped fuel in Wichita, Kansas before proceeding to San Diego. He was back in San Diego after piercing his band, Bale, which he managed, which played for a sold-out audience at Madison Square Garden.
Overnight schedules are not permitted for passenger aircraft under federal crew rest regulations, but these regulations do not apply to civilian aircraft.
San Diego Fire Department assistant Dan Eddie said the morning fog was so thick that he “can't see it in front of you.”
Former NTSB and FAA collision investigator Jeff Gutzetti said he believes the pilot is thick fog and fatigue, which are likely to be the cause of the collision after flying overnight.
“This accident has all the ears of the classic attempts to really get bad weather and poor visibility into the airport,” Gutzetti said. “And there were other airports where the crew could go.”
He said pilots should check the FAA post called Notifications to airmen warning pilots about issues such as the runway lights being turned off.
“It's pretty easy for a pilot to get that information and they need to get that information before they can fly,” Gusetti said.
The pilot would also have noticed that the lights were not working when he came down. Without a light, the procedure decided that he should climb and detour to another airport, Gusetti said.
The plane fragment was found under the power line about half a block from the house. It continued to lose its wings on the road just behind the house. Guzzetti said that even if the plane missed the power line, it could be crashing because it was too low in the fog.
A terrifying awakening
The crash sites show more damage to the front of the house, including broken stone landscaping walls and incineration sites that were parked across the street and shoved into the owner's living room before firing.
Ben McCarty and his wife, who live in the house where the collided, said they felt the heat around them after awakening to the explosion.
“All I could see was a fire. The roof of the house was still burning. I could see the night sky from our living room,” McCarty, who has served in the Navy for 13 years, told local ABC affiliate KGTV.
The flames blocked many exits, so they grabbed the kids and dogs and ran their backs, but the burning debris blocked the gates, so the neighbors helped them climb over the fence to escape.
“We took the kids onto the fence and then I jumped over the fence. They brought the ladders and got the dog,” McCarty said.
Meanwhile, the fiery jet fuel ignited everything from wood to plastic garbage containers to cars after cars and rolled the blocks.
McCarty's home was the only home to be destroyed, but another 10 homes said they had been damaged.
McCarty said his family enjoyed life under the flight path so that they could see the plane passing overhead.
“We and our kids sit at our door and we look up. My sons were always excited to see the plane passing by and say that the irony was where we sat was where the plane hit,” McCarty said.
Now he wants to move.
“I'm not going to live that flight line again. It's going to be difficult to sleep at night,” McCarty said.
That could have gotten worse
Gutzetti often dies on the ground when planes crash in residential areas unless people are right in places where planes hit like Philadelphia in January.
At least 100 San Diego area residents have been evacuated, and officials said it is unclear when people will return.
Thursday's crash crash comes weeks after a small plane crashed into a nearby Simi Valley in northwest Los Angeles.
In October 2021, twin engine planes tilled the outskirts of San Diego, killing pilots and UPS delivery drivers on the ground, and burning homes.
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Funk contributed to this report from Omaha, Nebraska.
