Six people onboard a small plane that crashed in San Diego on Thursday morning were confirmed dead, officials said, as authorities worked to ascertain their identities and investigate the cause of the incident.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said at a press conference on Friday afternoon that local authorities were the entity in charge of releasing the names of the victims.
“The pilot and passengers were fatally injured,” Dan Baker, a senior air safety investigator at the NTSB, said at the press conference. “There were no ground fatalities or serious injuries.”
According to Baker, a fire ignited by the impact destroyed the plane and damaged nearby homes and vehicles.
Baker said officials will work over the next year to determine what caused the Cessna 550 Citation to crash just before 4am on Thursday. The jet was carrying a music executive and five others.
Three employees of Sound Talent Group, which has represented artists such as Sum 41 and Vanessa Carlton, were among the fatalities in the crash, the company confirmed: the agency’s co-founder, Dave Shapiro, who was listed as the owner of the plane and had a pilot’s license, was among the dead, according to the Federal Aviation Administration; and the additional two employees who died were Kendall Fortner, 24, and Emma Huke, 25, both southern California natives and booking associates for the agency.
The incident was reported in the Murphy Canyon community, near the Montgomery-Gibbs executive airport, around 3.47am local time. Amid the pre-dawn darkness and fog, the plane reportedly struck at least one home, charring the structure and causing the roof to collapse, and damaged several vehicles. Authorities said the crash damaged about 10 homes, and left jet fuel throughout the area.
No one in the neighborhood of US navy housing died, but eight people were treated for smoke inhalation from the fiery crash and non-life-threatening injuries.
The cause of the accident has yet to be determined. Among the questions investigators will seek to answer is whether the pilot was aware of a notice alerting flight crews that runway and glide-path lighting at Montgomery-Gibbs airport was out of commission.
The pilot did not report any problems to air traffic control or declare an emergency before the crash, according to Baker.
“We anticipate the wreckage recovery will begin later today and our team will conclude the on-scene portion of the investigation within the next two to three days,” he said.
