The private jet that crashed last month in San Diego, killing all six on board, was flying too low before it hit power lines and slammed into a house, investigators said Wednesday.
According to a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report, the plane reached a descent point about three miles from the runway that was too low, before dropping to 60 feet above ground level. The power lines that the plane struck were about 90 feet above the ground and about 1.8 nautical miles away from the runway.
Portions of the plane’s left horizontal stabilizer and its vertical stabilizer were later found about 200 feet downrange of the power lines, according to the NTSB report. The plane then slammed into a house in a nearby San Diego neighborhood.
The victims of the crash included rock drummer Daniel Williams, music agent Dave Shapiro, booking associate Emma L. Huke, 25, photographer Celina Marie Rose Kenyon, 35, and booking associate Kendall Fortner, 24. Eight people on the ground had minor injuries, investigators said.
Shapiro was flying the Cessna Citation jet on May 22 from Teterboro, N.J., with plans to land at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in San Diego, when he encountered low visibility and thick fog, according to the four-page NTSB report.
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Six people are dead and the official cause of a plane crash near San Diego remains under investigation.
The automated system that provides weather conditions and runway lights weren’t operating at the airport before the plane crashed, the report confirmed.
The NTSB report said the pilot told the control tower that he knew the system that provides weather information was out of commission. The NTSB report said that the pilot asked the air traffic controller to help him determine the weather conditions at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport. Instead, the report said the controller gave the pilot the weather conditions at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, located about four miles north, where winds were calm and visibility was up to half a mile.
The report also said that the runway lighting system had not been working since March 28, 2022, and that the repairs had been delayed awaiting the completion of an environmental study.
The preliminary report did not include any conclusions or discuss wrongdoing and does not say when a final report is expected to be released.
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Summer Lin is a reporter on the Fast Break Desk, the Los Angeles Times’ breaking news team. Before coming to The Times, she covered breaking news for the Mercury News and national politics and California courts for McClatchy’s publications, including the Miami Herald. An East Coast native, Lin moved to California after graduating from Boston College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Lin was among The Times’ staff members who covered the Monterey Park mass shooting in 2023, which was recognized by the Pulitzer Board as a finalist in breaking news.
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