A small jet crashed into a residential San Diego neighborhood early Thursday morning, killing at least two people on board and injuring eight others, damaging several homes, and forcing the evacuation about 100 people, officials said.
About 100 people were evacuated in the area, and 10 buildings were damaged, according to a post by the San Diego Police Department on social media.
Dan Eddy, San Diego’s assistant fire chief, told a news conference that the fatalities were people on the plane. The number of people aboard was not immediately known.
The aircraft, a Cessna Citation jet, which Mr. Eddy said can carry up to 10 people, crashed in Murphy Canyon near the Tierrasanta neighborhood just before 4 a.m. Multiple homes caught on fire and were destroyed, the San Diego Police Department said.
There were no reports of serious injuries among people on the ground, said Mr. Eddy, who described the neighborhood as a “gigantic debris field.”
About 100 residents of the Tierrasanta neighborhood have evacuated. The neighborhood is home to many military families, according to Robert Heely, a commanding officer of Naval Base San Diego.
Burned cars littered the area on Thursday morning, and some four hours after the crash fire fighters were still struggling to extinguish a car on fire.
“I can’t quite put words to describe what the scene looked like with the jet fuel running down the streets and everything on fire all at once,” said Scott Wahl, the San Diego police chief. “It was pretty horrific to see.”
“All we heard was the loud engine screeching noise, a loud boom — and the sky lit up,” said Cynthia Schmitz, 33, a resident of the Tierrasanta neighborhood. Ms. Schmitz, who is in the Navy, said she quickly realized that it had been a small plane crash.
“We see planes go over our house all the time, so I figured that’s what it was,” she said.
The plane had been attempting to land at the Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport, across a highway from where it crashed. The jet had departed from Teterboro, N.J., late Wednesday night with a layover at Colonel James Jabara Airport in Wichita, Kan., before flying toward San Diego, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking database.
Officials did not immediately say what caused the crash.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating.
In October 2021, another small plane en route to the same airport crashed in the town of Santee, northeast of San Diego, clipping a UPS truck and destroying two homes. The driver of the UPS truck and the pilot were killed in that crash.
Susan C. Beachy contributed research. Orlando Mayorquín contributed reporting.
Talya Minsberg is a Times reporter covering breaking and developing news.
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