A private jet crashed into a neighborhood of U.S. Navy-owned housing in San Diego during foggy weather, igniting cars and homes and killing Six people while injuring multiple others, authorities said.
The plane could hold eight to 10 people, but it’s not yet known how many were on board, Assistant San Diego Fire Chief Dan Eddy said at a news conference. Authorities couldn’t say definitively if both of the dead were on the plane.
The aircraft crashed just before 4 a.m. into the U.S. military’s largest housing neighborhood. Eddy said at least one home was destroyed and 10 others suffered damage along with half a dozen vehicles that ignited. The destroyed home had a partially collapsed roof.
Authorities initially said no one was transported by emergency crews from the military housing. But after a morning news conference, San Diego police officer Anthony Carrasco said five people from a single family were taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation after evacuating to a nearby school. Another person was treated at a hospital for injuries sustained while climbing out of a window trying to flee. Two others were treated for minor injuries at the scene, Carrasco said.
San Diego officials haven’t released details about the plane but said it was a flight from the Midwest. The flight tracking site FlightAware lists a Cessna Citation II jet scheduled to arrive at the Montgomery-Gibbs Executive airport in San Diego at 3:47 a.m. from the small Colonel James Jabara Airport in Wichita, Kansas. Officials at the Kansas airport said it made a fueling stop in Wichita. The flight originated at night in Teterboro, New Jersey, according to FlightAware.
The airport in Teterboro is about 6 miles from Manhattan and is frequently used by private and corporate jets.
The plane is owned by Daviation LLC, based in Alaska, according to Federal Aviation Administration records, which also show the owner also had at least one address in San Diego and had a pilot’s license. The Associated Press couldn’t immediately reach the owner, his family or business partners.
In the San Diego neighborhood, the smell of jet fuel lingered in the air hours after the crash while authorities worked to extinguish one stubborn car fire.
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