Pilot and passengers killed in San Diego aircraft crash

Debris covers the bottom after a small aircraft crashed right into a San Diego neighbourhood, setting properties and vehicles on fireplace and forcing evacuations early Thursday, May 22, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

The six folks onboard a small aircraft that crashlanded in a California neighbourhood amid dense fog have been all killed, in response to investigating authorities.

The Cessna 550 Citation, which federal data present belonged to music agent Dave Shapiro, plummeted right into a residential space of San Diego at 3.47 a.m. (1047 GMT) on Thursday (May 22), in response to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

It was not instantly clear what induced the Cessna to come back plunging into the Murphy Canyon neighbourhood, about two miles (3.2 kilometres) from the Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport the place the plane was headed.

In an audio recording posted to air visitors web site liveatc.internet, the pilot will be heard asking about climate circumstances previous to descent, whereas indicating that visibility was right down to a minimal.

“Doesn’t sound nice, however we’ll give it a go,” the pilot mentioned.

As the aircraft got here down, it clipped an influence line and the influence of the crash set a number of close by homes and autos alight, jolting households awake earlier than daybreak.

“The pilot and passengers have been fatally injured,” NTSB investigator Dan Baker instructed a press convention on Friday (May 23). He added that nobody on the bottom had been critically damage.

While Baker didn’t specify the variety of fatalities, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration beforehand mentioned the non-public aircraft had six folks onboard.

The San Diego County health worker’s workplace named three of the victims as Shapiro, 42, Emma Huke, 25, and Celina Kenyon, 36.

Music veteran Shapiro was a co-founder of Sound Talent Group, which counts artists Hanson, Sum 41, Modern Baseball and Vanessa Carlton on its roster.

The firm instructed U.S. media that two different members of its employees, reserving assistants Huke and Kendall Fortner, have been additionally killed within the crash.

“We are devastated by the lack of our co-founder, colleagues and mates. Our hearts exit to their households and to everybody impacted,” Sound Talent Group mentioned in a press release.

NBC7 recognized the opposite victims as software program engineer Dominic Damian and Daniel Williams, a former drummer for metalcore band The Devil Wears Prada.

“No phrases. We owe you every part. Love you without end,” the band wrote in a tribute to Williams on Instagram.

Kenyon was knowledgeable photographer and mom, in response to her social media. Her father, Bryan Charles Feldman, instructed NBC7 she had chosen to fly house early with mates after a photograph shoot slightly than take a industrial aircraft so she may take her daughter to high school the subsequent day.

At least 10 properties in San Diego’s Murphy Canyon neighborhood have been hit by particles, whereas the road was affected by charred remnants, scattered fiberglass and jet gas.

Eight folks have been handled for minor accidents, in response to responding police and firefighters.

The NTSB mentioned the pilot had not reported any issues to air visitors management or declared an emergency earlier than making an attempt to land.

The regional Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport was experiencing a number of glitches on the time, with its runway strategy lights and an automatic climate reporting system not operational, in response to the NTSB’s Baker.

The aircraft was not outfitted with a flight knowledge recorder.

“We are attempting to find out presently if the airplane was outfitted with a cockpit voice recorder,” Baker mentioned.

The NTSB mentioned its preliminary investigation would take a number of weeks to finish.