OAN Staff James Meyers
9:35 AM – Thursday, May 22, 2025
Multiple people have been killed after a private jet crashed into several houses in a San Diego, California, residential neighborhood early Thursday morning.
Assistant Fire Department Chief Dan Eddy said during a news conference that the Cessna 550 made a “direct hit to multiple homes” and vehicles around 4 a.m. local time, causing a “gigantic debris field” in the Tierrasanta neighborhood of San Diego.
“We have jet fuel all over the place,” Eddy said, confirming that at least 15 homes went up in flames due to the crash.
Meanwhile, it has not been confirmed how many people were aboard the plane, but officials did confirm multiple fatalities of those aboard the aircraft and that no residents of the neighborhood required hospitalization.
“Our main goal is to search all these homes and get everybody out right now,” Eddy said of the evacuation area that surrounded several blocks of the neighborhood.
“When it hit the street, as the jet fuel went down, it took out every single car that was on both sides of the street,” Eddy said. “You can see that every single car was burning down both sides of the street.”
Still, fire crews are fighting to put out vehicles that were set ablaze at the scene of the plane crash.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the private jet could hold up to 10 people, but “the number of people on board is unknown at this time.”
One resident, Christopher Moore, who lives one street over from the crash site, said he and his wife were awakened by a loud noise and then saw smoke and multiple fires as they grabbed their two children and fled their home.
“It was definitely horrifying for sure, but sometimes you’ve just got to drop your head and get to safety,” he said.
The cause of the crash is still to be determined, but it happened during heavy fog in the morning near the Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport.
“You could barely see in front of you,” said Eddy, the assistant fire chief.
Furthermore, the FAA said the National Transportation Safety Board will spearhead the investigation.
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