The Cessna 550 Citation came down shortly before 4 a.m. on Salmon Street, about two miles southeast of Montgomery Field, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Dense fog covered the area. The impact destroyed the home it struck, ignited vehicles and scattered aircraft debris across a broad section of the neighborhood. No one on the ground was killed.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that six people were aboard. Authorities were still recovering remains and had not immediately released an official total or all identities, but they did not believe anyone on the aircraft survived. Sound Talent Group said co-founder Dave Shapiro and two of its employees died. Daniel Williams, a former drummer for the metalcore band The Devil Wears Prada, had posted that he was boarding the aircraft with Shapiro; the band later published a tribute to him.
The flight had departed Teterboro, New Jersey, at about 11:15 p.m. the previous evening and stopped in Wichita, Kansas, for fuel before continuing toward San Diego, the NTSB said. Investigators found portions of the aircraft near the power lines and a wing section on a road behind the damaged homes. The cause of the crash had not been determined.
Fire spread rapidly after the impact. Jet fuel moved along the street, and about half a dozen vehicles burned. Officials said roughly 10 homes were damaged, while at least 100 residents were evacuated from Murphy Canyon, a large neighborhood of US Navy-owned housing. The smell of fuel remained for hours, and authorities could not immediately say when residents would be able to return safely.
People in the home that was hit escaped with their children and dogs through the rear after fire blocked the front. Neighbors helped them over a fence. Other families also fled amid burning cars, debris and explosions. One of the eight injured people was hurt while climbing out a window.
Emergency crews worked in a densely populated residential area where burning fuel complicated access. The immediate response combined firefighting, evacuation and the careful recovery of victims across a fuel-contaminated scene. The FAA and NTSB opened investigations, with the aircraft's contact with power lines, its final approach and the fog among the documented circumstances. Those facts established the sequence immediately before impact, but not why the jet descended into the neighborhood.
