A small jet has crashed in a residential area of San Diego, California, causing extensive damage to homes and vehicles.
According to NBC san diego , the crash occurred around 3:45AM local time on Thursday, May 22, in the Murphy Canyon neighborhood near Sculpin Street and Santo Road. Emergency responders arrived to find a chaotic scene engulfed in fire and thick fog.
Images shared on social media show flames erupting in the middle of a residential street, with smoke pouring into the early morning sky.
“We’re responding to a plane crash in the area of Sculpin Street and Santo Road,” San Diego Police said in a statment . “Please avoid the area to allow emergency crews to work safely. More information will be shared as it becomes available.”
The plane, identified as a Cessna 550, had been approaching Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport when it went down.
The aircraft typically carries between six to eight passengers, but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the number of people on board at the time remains unknown, metro reported.
Assistant Fire Department Chief Dan Eddy confirmed during a press conference that approximately 15 homes and several cars were damaged or destroyed in the crash and the fires that followed.
“We have jet fuel all over the place. We have hazmat on scene, and we asked for more resources. We are also working with the military,” he said. “The main goal moving forward is to ensure all those houses are cleared and no one is inside. Then we will move in the middle where the plane crashed near the cars and search them, then search the plane.”
Describing the conditions at the time of the crash, Eddy added: “It was very foggy. You could barely see in front of you,” and noted there was “a direct hit to multiple homes” and “a gigantic debris field” across several blocks, cited by the Evening standard
Firefighters managed to extinguish all the fires and began the process of carefully searching the affected area to ensure all residents were evacuated. No injuries or fatalities have been confirmed at this time.
The FAA said the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will lead the investigation. “This information is preliminary and subject to change,” the agency noted in a statement.
The crash comes amid growing concerns over aviation safety, following a string of recent air disasters across the U.S. and Mexico.
In January, an American airlines jet collided midair with a U.S. Army helicopter over Washington, D.C.
More recently, a family of doctors, student athletes, and their partners were tragically killed when their private jet crashed in New York .
The twin-engine turboprop Mitsubishi MU-2B, which had departed from White Plains and was carrying six people, crashed near the Massachusetts border as it attempted to land at Columbia County Airport.
Among the victims were Michael Groff, a neuroscientist and experienced pilot, his wife Joy Saini, a urologist, and their children: MIT graduates Karenna and Jared Groff.
Also killed were Karenna’s boyfriend, James Sontoro, and Jared’s partner, Alexia Couyutas Duarte, according to the Times Union. Their daughter Anika was not on the flight.
An investigation into the tragedy has revealed that the controller warned Groff, the pilot, that his plane was flying too low, but he never responded to air traffic control, despite them sending out numerous warnings.
The report states that there were no further radio transmissions from the plane before it crashed, killing everyone on board.
