DRAMATIC footage has captured the moment a private jet carrying a music star and an agent exploded into a fireball after crashing in a San Diego neighborhood.
Six people in total are feared to have died in the high-impact smash that claimed the life of rocker Daniel Williams.
A fireball illuminated the night sky after a plane crashed in a San Diego neighborhoodDavid Nero
APAerial shots show one property destroyed[/caption]
GettyDaniel Williams, a rock star, was on board the aircraft[/caption]
Ring doorbell footage captured the impact of the Cessna plane crash just after 3:45 am local time.
A ball of fire could be seen in the background, according to the footage recorded by David Nero’s device and seen by the NBC affiliate KNSD-TV.
The night sky was illuminated by the bursts of light, and then plumes of smoke could be seen billowing.
In the moments leading up to the crash, the pilot had to navigate a series of challenges.
Heavy fog blanketed the neighborhood as the plane tried to land at the Montgomery Gibbs executive airport – located two miles from the eventual crash site.
The pilot asked for a visibility update, but the air traffic control tower was closed.
He then turned to a Marine Corps base located around eight miles away.
In order to land at the airfield, pilots must have a visibility of at least three miles, as per the Federal Aviation Administration.
An automatic weather report from the airport did not have any data for visibility and wind, as reported by the ABC affiliate KGTV-TV.
Information linked to the airport’s sky condition was also missing.
Audio recordings, heard by the outlet, revealed the pilot said he would try to land the plane despite the poor conditions.
“Doesn’t sound great, but we’ll give it a go,” the pilot said.
Investigators have not revealed a cause behind the smash, but they’re probing several factors – the weather being one of those.
David Soucie, a CNN aviation analyst, believes it’s unlikely that the plane ran out of fuel.
He pointed out the fact that jet fuel was spattered across the streets in Tierrasanta – located around 10 miles from downtown San Diego.
The jet, which can carry up to 10 people, smashed into power lines before colliding into a house, according to investigators.
Fuel ignited, which saw cars torched and turned into shells by the side of the road.
Doesn’t sound great, but we’ll give it a go.
Pilot
Around 100 people in the neighborhood were evacuated and eight people were injured.
Cars were in a mangled state and debris was strewn across the road.
Locals initially thought an earthquake had struck before they realized what had happened.
“My kids woke up as well, they looked out the window and started screaming,” one local told the CBS affiliate KCAL-TV.
FIERY SCENE
“My whole front area was on fire. We were trapped in our home and couldn’t get out.”
Williams and music titan, Dave Shapiro, are the only two victims that have been named.
Williams was formerly a drummer for the Christian rock band The Devil Wears Prada.
He boasted about being on board the private plane and joked he was at the controls in posts uploaded to his Instagram Stories.
The plane left Teterboro airport in New Jersey on Wednesday night before making a stop in Kansas to refuel.
It spent around an hour on the ground before making its way to California.
Williams’ dad later clarified that his son was goofing around, per TMZ.
But Shapiro had a pilot license and boasted about his accomplishment in an Instagram post from 2020.
And, he shared videos of himself performing maneuvers such as loops and inverted rolls.
“Social distancing 6,000 feet from other people is more effective than 6ft,” the caption of one of his videos stated.
The videos were taken in March 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Instagram/xcadaverxWilliams shared a picture of himself sitting in the cockpit – before the plane took off[/caption]
Williams joked he was the co-pilot as he sat in the cockpitInstagram/xcadaverx
GettyCars were left mangled and homes were damaged[/caption]
APDave Shapiro, music mogul, was on board the plane[/caption]
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