Several fatalities are feared after a small aircraft crashed into a residential area of San Diego, California, early Thursday morning, igniting a series of fires that destroyed homes and vehicles.
The Cessna 550, which had departed from Kansas, went down in the Murphy Canyon neighborhood around 3:45 a.m., just as it was approaching Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in heavy fog, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
San Diego Assistant Fire Chief Dan Eddy confirmed the presence of multiple fatalities, though authorities are still working to determine how many people were aboard the plane.
“When it hit the street, the jet fuel spilled and ignited, engulfing every single car parked on both sides,” Eddy said. “We have jet fuel all over the place.”
At least 10 homes were damaged by the impact or by flying debris, and numerous cars erupted in flames. Despite the widespread destruction, Eddy noted that, “miraculously,” no serious injuries or deaths were reported among residents on the ground.
Eyewitnesses described scenes of chaos and panic. One resident told a local Fox affiliate: “I looked out the window and there were just flames everywhere. Then we heard a chain reaction of booms.”
Footage captured shortly after the crash showed lines of fire streaking across the road, fed by spilled jet fuel. Daylight revealed the scale of destruction—charred trees, blackened rooftops, twisted vehicles, and the lingering scent of fuel.
The crash occurred in a densely populated military housing area. San Diego is home to several U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard facilities.
Zane Baker, a high school senior and son of a Navy servicemember, described the early morning confusion: “I immediately rushed to the door and saw the flames. Police were going door-to-door evacuating people. It’s a mess—parking lots are packed, roads blocked, and everyone’s trying to figure out what’s going on.”
The tragedy comes amid a string of aviation-related incidents in the U.S. that have rattled public confidence. Recent weeks have seen air traffic control outages at major airports like Newark, a mid-air collision over Washington, and another deadly crash involving a small plane in a Los Angeles suburb earlier this month.
As investigators comb through the wreckage in San Diego, federal authorities are working to determine the cause of the crash and how many lives were lost.