Multiple people died after small plane crash in San Diego neighbourhood

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.

Addressing reporters at the site of the crash, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Assistant Chief Dan Eddy said that the plane struck about 15 homes, causing multiple homes and cars to catch fire.

The private jet is widely used for business travel and can accommodate eight to 10 people.

The Cessna Citation plane, which Mr. Eddy said could transport up to ten passengers, crashed in Murphy Canyon near the Tierrasanta area shortly before 4 a.m. Multiple homes caught on fire and were destroyed, the San Diego Police Department said.

“I can’t quite put words to describe what the scene looked like with the jet fuel running down the streets and everything on fire all at once,” said Scott Wahl, the San Diego police chief. "It was pretty horrific to see."

Speaking with reporters for a second time Thursday morning, Eddy said that more than one person was killed in the crash, but that all of the fatalities were on the plane.

He said that the plane could have sat eight to ten people, including the pilot, but that officials did not know how many people were on the plane when it crashed.

"We do believe we have multiple fatalities, but we’re going to have to go through and take our time and ensure that's exactly what we have," he said.

Eddy stated that there were no deaths from the properties damaged in the incident.

“The good thing that we have was we have not transported anybody off scene from any of these areas here right now,” he said. "And we're searching through to make sure that nobody's in any of those homes."

Later on Thursday, the San Diego Police Department said that one person was hospitalized and two others were treated for minor injuries.

“I can’t quite put words to describe what the scene looked like with the jet fuel running down the streets and everything on fire all at once,” said Scott Wahl, the San Diego police chief. "It was pretty horrific to see."

The plane had been attempting to land at the Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport, across a highway from where it crashed. The jet had departed from Teterboro, N.J., late Wednesday night with a layover at Colonel James Jabara Airport in Wichita, Kan., before flying toward San Diego, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking database.

Officials did not immediately say what caused the crash.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration are looking into the crash.

The Citation, according to FAA records, is owned by a company in Alaska and was built in 1985.

In October 2021, another small plane en route to the same airport crashed in the town of Santee, northeast of San Diego, clipping a UPS truck and destroying two homes. The driver of the UPS truck and the pilot were killed in that crash.