Several killed when aircraft crashes in military houses in the Murphy Canyon district

A small plane crashed in a dense fog in a quarter of Murphy Canyon early Thursday morning, killed at least two people on the plane, injured eight people on the ground and burned several cars and houses in the military housing.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the plane, a Cessna 550, crashed around 3:45 a.m. east of Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport. Officials could not immediately say how many people were on board the Cessna Citation II who holds eight to 10 people.

About 100 people were evacuated from the neighborhood. Most of the injuries were treated in the evacuation center for minor injuries, but one was taken to a hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. At first, civil servants said nobody was injured.

More than 10 houses caught fire, as did several cars. Several large oil pollution was observed on the street, and the smell of jet bracelet was hung hours after the crash in the area of ​​Sculpin Street and the Santo Road southeast of Interstate 15 and the Aero Drive.

During a press conference, Dan Eddy, deputy head of the San Diego fire department department, said that the crews entered “to find an airplane that had come through this neighborhood” and took out a home.

“When the street came when the Jet fuel went down, every single car that was located on both sides of the street,” said Eddy. “You can see that every single car burned both sides of the street.”

A burned -out truck that may have been driven by the street was sitting in front of a house with a gaping hole.

Scott Wahl, police chief of San Diego, said that there were about 50 civil servants on site within minutes.

“I cannot give words to describe what this scene looks like, but with the Jet fuel that goes down the street and all at once, it was quite terrible to see the police and firefighters to run there to evacuate people,” said Wahl. “It is really heroic to do everything and everything to save a person's lives.”

The authorities are working to identify the deceased and did not say who is probably falling the plane. According to FAA Records, the plane is registered with a Music Agent Dave Shapiro company based in Alaska.

The homage to Shapiro flocked to social media and its connection to the plane spread in the music industry.

Shapiro was at the Rockville Festival in Daytona Beach, Florida, with several of his bands. His LinkedIn profile said he was certified as a pilot of air traffic and owner of Small Record Label Velocity Records.

For years, Shapiro worked as a music agent in large companies of the United Talent Agency of the Los Angeles and the agency group, before lusing his own agency in San Diego in 2018, Sound Talent Media.

About 100 inhabitants were evacuated to the nearby Miller primary school, which was closed on Thursday as an evacuation and daycare center. Hancock Elementary was also closed, said a spokesman for the San Diego Unified School District.

The Santo Terrace district, a collection of duplexes that are one and two floors in the Lake Murphy region, is military. The commander of San Diego Naval Base, Robert Healy, said that the “most important concern at the moment is to ensure that we have the security of our families who live in the neighborhood”.

Thick fog covered the area and formed only about half a mile visibility at the time of the crash, according to the National Weather Service. “They could hardly see them in front of them,” said the deputy fire chief.

Montgomery Field did not submit a weather report on Thursday morning, the weather service says. The automated weather observation report that pilots can set “missing” or “not available” via the air traffic control frequency at the time of the crash.

The plane started on Wednesday by Teterboro, New Jersey, and then held in Wichita, Kan. Records show that the aircraft had flown in Daytona Beach and Montgomery gibbs in the early this month.

Eddy said the crash left “a gigantic rubble field” in the densely packed neighborhood. He said all fires were poured within a few hours, apart from “a persistent car fire that will not go out”.

A loud sound that sounded like a jet, followed by a large boom, Gilbert Gonzalez came from sleep. His house of the Salmon Street trembled. His wife told him that she saw a flash.

He was five houses from the crash site.

Gonzalez dressed up quickly, slipped on flip-flops and ran outside. “You could see the entire flame strip on the other side of the street,” he said.

Gonzalez, who works as a navy damage control man or firefighter on the USSES, saw neighbors who used garden tubes to fight the fire.

He said that the house that was hit directly from the plane was “just torn down”. He and others went to help a family in a neighboring home and draped his ladder over a back fence to offer the family an exit path.

Someone gave him two little children. He carried her to a nearby house and then returned to help her mother over the fence. He also helped bring the family dogs to safety.

“It is unreal,” he said a short time later in a nearby parking lot of the naval exchange. “We are on the airline of this airport. We see that these things come over our houses every day. And they think about it – what if they only dropped one day? I never thought that it would actually happen that way.”

Some residents who evacuated from their houses, many who were still dressed in the pajamas, gathered in the NEX parking lot early Thursday, where they were addressed by volunteers and people who offer water, food, diapers and other supplies.

Philip Rizzo, CEO of Liberty Military Housing, who manages the real estate, estimated that 40 to 50 families were sold until the examination was completed. Of these, maybe 15 to 20 families must be restored.

“It is a holiday weekend, so it will be a challenge to find a hotel through the weekend,” said Rizzo. “So we appreciate every partnership that we receive from the local hotels. But I would also say that we have temporary free houses that are provided in our portfolio.”

Before his alarm went out at 5:30 a.m., Austin Lariccia's cell phone was flooded with text messages from friends and employees, in which he asked if he was doing well. What happened? He asked. Headlines showed a plane crash in San Diego.

As soon as he read that the small aircraft had crashed in his Murphy Canyon district, he hurried to the front door of his house along the Taussig Street and found a number of burnt, parked vehicles from the episodes. A few hours earlier, a river flames illuminated the rehearsal road, which made the Lariccias house accessible.

“As soon as I read the article, I thought, oh, it's like right in my front yard,” he said. “This car was still on fire. You can see in the news in which all plane places take place, and then you see so many planes over us and wonder if this will happen here.”

Lisa Monroe lives east of Canyon View South. She and her husband heard numerous sirens around 4 a.m.

In the late Thursday morning, she quickly moved through vehicles that were parked at the Navy Exchange petrol station in the Santo Road and the Gurnard Street. She spread the word of families who had evacuated that food and accommodation were available from Miller Elementary. A few families, many with children and pets that were not sure when they could return to their homes agreed to stop by.

“As soon as we learned what had happened, we started to collect food and water for people,” she said. “All teachers and everyone help and come together to help.”

Esther Hoffman, who lives a street from the crash site, said that the incident was “everywhere in our house. There were a number of mini explosions.”

She spent the morning in the parking lot of the naval exchange, where she had evacuated with her young children, dogs and in -laws in a van she had just borrowed from a neighbor.

“Even if the fire didn't get us, I thought that the smoke would be bad for my children and my dogs,” she said.

As she spoke, the workers of Liberty Military Housing went through the parking lot and distributed food and donuts to evacuated families. Someone gave Hoffman's young daughter a coloring book. The Navy Exchange opened early so that families could use the bathrooms.

“I think what is really great is only because we are all military. We have that” we are in this together “, said Hoffman.

The neighbors talked and put together what they could from eyewitness reports.

“I have the feeling that if this happened in a non-military area, it would have been much more scattered.”

The San Diego Humane Society has teams from their law enforcement officers who react to demands for pets that need to be saved from houses or may need medical help.

A call came from a person who needed help with five puppies and three adult dogs with an unknown owner, said the spokeswoman for Humane Society, Nina Thompson.

In October 2021, two people were killed and two more injured when a small aircraft fell into a residential area into Santee and destroyed two houses and a UPS delivery car. It was brought on the way on the way to Montgomery Field.

The authors of the employees Gary Robbins and Phillip Molnar contributed to this report.

Originally published: May 22, 2025 at 8:33 a.m. PDT