The Murphy Canyon community was attempting to ease into normalcy on Friday after a small plane crashed through their neighborhood, setting fire to several homes and injuring 8 people on the ground while killing multiple people on board.
Families who live in the military housing community in San Diego sent their students back to school at Miller and Hancock elementary a day after canceled classes. Still, it was impossible to avoid reminders of the Cessna 550 jet crash in their neighborhood as federal investigators infiltrated the area to determine what caused the plane to go down the day before.
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WATCH HEREThe National Transportation Board said Friday a weather alert system and airport runway lights at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport were not working at the time the pilot attempted to land just before 4 a.m. Whether those were a factor in the plane crash remained under investigation. The plane also did not have a flight data recorder and investigators were still working to determine if it was equipped with a cockpit voice recorder.
A preliminary investigation won't be released for several weeks, the NTSB said.
Investigators said the private jet was preparing to land with six people on board when it struck high-tension power lines just before 4 a.m. Thursday amid foggy weather. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration later confirmed the weather observation system had stopped working a few days prior. The FAA said the airport control tower was unmanned, which is not unusual, and the pilot instead radioed to Miramar Airport about 4 miles away for a weather report, the NTSB said.
In radio communications obtained by NBC 7 between the air traffic controller at Miramar and the pilot, the two discuss weather conditions at two nearby airports. The pilot then decides to land at Montgomery, saying, "Doesn't sound great, but we'll give it a go."
As for the runway lights, the plane may have been too far away from the airport for that to have an impact, said Jim Kidrick, President & Chief Executive Officer at San Diego Air & Space Museum.
The flight originated from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and stopped in Witchita, Kansas, for fuel before continuing on to San Diego, where the plane struck a home on the way down and crashed into the middle of the street, sending a stream of jet fuel down the street that ignited "every single car that was on both sides of the street on fire," according to Eddy. At least 10 homes and several more vehicles were damaged.
The passengers included Dave Shapiro, the co-founder of music talent agency Sound Talent Group, and two other employees, the agency said. FAA records show that Shapiro was a registered pilot, flight instructor and ground instructor. It’s not clear if Shapiro was at the controls when the plane went down.
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SIGN UP A Sound Talent Group spokesperson on Friday identified the two other employees as Kendall Fortner, a graduate of San Diego State University and a booking assistant at the music talent agency, and Emma Huke, 25, also a booking assistant.
On Friday, the San Diego Medical Examiner's Office officially named three victims, including Shapiro and Huke. The other one named was 36-year-old professional photographer Celina Kenyon.
NBC 7 San Diego Investigates learned one of the crash victims appeared to be Daniel Williams, a friend of Shapiro's and the former drummer of the band The Devil Wears Prada. Before taking off, Williams posted several pictures to Instagram of the inside and outside of the jet that would later crash. His band posted a message in remembrance of him and wrote, "no words. We owe you everything. Love you forever."
Dominic Damian, the sixth person believed to be aboard the plane, was also friends with Shapiro for years. According to his LinkedIn page, he was working as a software engineer at the time of his death. His social media pages also showed his passion for jiu-jitsu. The Pacific Beach gym he attended is holding a remembrance event for him on Memorial Day.
Here's what we've learned, so far, about the victims.
While FAA officials said six people were on board, they have not yet confirmed how many people died in the plane crash. The NTSB said they did not believe there were any survivors.
The area near Salmon and Sample streets remained littered with debris -- scorched vehicles lining the street, a wing on the side of the road, plane fragments under a powerline and its body on Sample Street.
"There's plane everywhere. Our debris field is very large. That's why we have multiple blocks that are blocked off right now," SDFD Assistant Chief Dan Eddy said Thursday. "As you guys would expect, when you have something that large coming in with that amount of speed, you're going to have a lot of throw that goes every direction."
Police cordoned off roads and patrolled neighborhoods in order to preserve the scene for federal investigators, whose presence in the neighborhood would last for at least another two to three days as they worked to remove the plane and transfer it to an aviation hangar where it would be further investigated.
At least 8 people on the ground suffered minor injuries like smoke inhalation while trying to evacuate. Eddy said all were treated at Miller Elementary, which served as an evacuation center for about 100 residents forced to leave their homes following the crash.
Ariya Waterworth was one of them. She said she woke up to a “whooshing sound” and then saw a giant fireball outside. One of the family’s cars was “completely disintegrated,” and the other had extensive damage. Her yard was littered with plane parts, broken glass and debris.
Video taken by Navy servicemember Gilbert Gonzalez showed neighbors frantically going door-to-door to help people and pets evacuate.
Jasmine, a resident who declined to use her last name, told NBC 7 the plane crash happened right outside her home and shook her house. She immediately left to alert neighbors. That is when she heard her neighbor behind her yell that she couldn't get out.
"I screamed out to my son to grab the ladder, which we were able to throw over and help them climb over our fence," she said.
Officials praised the military community for pulling together to get neighbors evacuated from the scene in many cases before first responders arrived.
" I cannot commend them enough for what they did on scene," Eddy said. "For me it's a little bit of a miracle, right? A plane hits your house -- I don't know exactly how they got out but I do know that neighbors helped them get out," Eddy said. "And that's the beauty about what I love in this neighborhood, too, and military, military looking out for one another."
The neighborhood is made up of single-family homes and townhomes.
One home’s roof was blackened and collapsed, with a piece of white metal sitting on the street in front. Half a dozen fully charred cars sat on the street and tree limbs, glass and pieces of white and blue metal were scattered on the road. At the end of the street, black smoke billowed as the site continued to burn.
Federal officials were expected to remove parts of the plane on Friday and complete the task on Saturday. The city of San Diego would then begin cleanup of the neighborhood in partnership with Lincoln Housing, the group that manages housing for service members in the Murphy Canyon neighborhood on behalf of the military.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
