NTSB investigators find San Diego jet was flying too low on its descent path before fiery crash
The private jet that crashed into a San Diego neighborhood last month was too low on its descent path for more than a mile before clipping power lines less than 100 feet above the ground, National Transportation Safety Board investigators said Wednesday.
The new findings are part of a preliminary report from the NTSB on the fiery May 22 crash that killed all six on board including music agent Dave Shapiro, who was piloting the Cessna Citation jet, and famed rock drummer Daniel Williams.
The crash occurred before sunrise in thick fog and low visibility as the overnight flight from Teterboro, New Jersey, was lining up to land at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport. Newly released data from the NTSB shows the jet reached a prescribed descent point roughly 3 miles from the runway already too low, then the plane continued to descend to a mere 60 feet above ground level.
The preliminary report does not specify why the flight was too low on the approach path. Investigators say they are still analyzing the plane's cockpit voice recorder.
NTSB investigators found parts of the plane's tail near 90- to 95-foot-high power transmission lines, which they classified in the report as the 'first identified point of contact.' The main parts of the wreckage, including the passenger cabin and left wing, came to rest in a neighborhood street about a quarter of a mile away, the NTSB said.
Nobody on the ground was seriously hurt by the impact, though the NTSB said eight people on the ground received minor injuries.
Compounding problems, the airport's automatic weather reporting system was out of service, causing air traffic controllers to relay to Shapiro the conditions at the nearby Marine Corps Air Station Miramar some four miles away. The NTSB noted part of the airport's lighting system that helps guide pilots in low visibility approaches was out of service since 2022.
The report does not find a probable cause, which is due in a final report typically published within two years of the crash.
Correction: A previous version of this story gave the wrong day for the release of the NTSB report. It was released Wednesday.
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