Posted on 06/19/2025 7:56:12 AM PDT by DFG
The pilot of a small private jet that crash landed in southern California last month and killed everyone on board, including a famous drummer, clipped a power line during landing while flying too low a preliminary report has revealed.
The Cessna 550 Citation plummeted into San Diego's Murphy Canyon neighborhood in the early hours of May 22 as it made its final approach for Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport.
Daniel Williams, a former drummer for metalcore band The Devil Wears Prada, and famed music producer Dave Shapiro - who is believed to have been the pilot - were among the six people killed in the crash.
Several factors contributed to the fatal crash, including the poor weather conditions that Shapiro was navigating during the descent, according to the National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report released Wednesday.
The airport's weather data system and a runway lighting system designed to guide pilots as they approach the runway were also inoperable, the NTSB report reviewed by the Daily Mail revealed.
Shapiro was flying below the minimum crossing altitude as he approached the airport. Roughly two miles away from the airport, he struck power transmission lines about 95 feet above the ground, slicing the tail of his plane and damaging the stabilizers.
The crash killed everyone aboard the jet and left eight people on the ground with minor injuries. The crash damaged one home and sent debris and jet fuel down the street, igniting 20 vehicles in flames, the report said.
The fatal plane crash comes amid a spate of aviation accidents including just last week when an Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed just minutes after take-off, killing all but one of 242 people on board.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“No doubt feeling pressure because that’s where his next passengers were going to meet him.”
More flights? He had just done a one- stop from New Jersey.
“But regardless of all of that, there is no excuse for being at tree top level two miles from touchdown.”
The plate I linked show a 554’ approach warning at the point of contact,
Not on the glideslope sectional.
6 people died in the accident. Have a nice day Mr. Superior flying expert...
Troll alert
Getthereitis.
So what is your point?
What you don’t use enough you lose.
“What you don’t use enough you lose.”
From the dude that earlier posted he was a low-time IFR ...
Ratings & Areas of Focus
Airline Transport Pilot – multi-engine airplane
Single engine Seaplane
Commercial Pilot-Helicopter
Certified Flight Instructor
Certified Flight Instructor Instrument
Multi-Engine Instructor
Citation 525 – Type Rating
Tail Wheel
Complex
High Performance
High Altitude
Aerobatics
Advanced Mountain Flying
Ferry Flights-Domestic and International
“Never allow your/a music producer to be your (single) pilot.”
The Pilot:
Founder of Velocity Aviation
Ratings & Areas of Focus
Airline Transport Pilot – multi-engine airplane
Single engine Seaplane
Commercial Pilot-Helicopter
Certified Flight Instructor
Certified Flight Instructor Instrument
Multi-Engine Instructor
Citation 525 – Type Rating
Tail Wheel
Complex
High Performance
High Altitude
Aerobatics
Advanced Mountain Flying
Ferry Flights-Domestic and International
Why are you posting to me, plant troll?
You’ve been told repeatedly not to, you big gnat hole. You simply cannot resist.
Buzz off....for the last time.
“Captain Steve states that the plane size “
Not size, approach speed. And that assumes a 1/2 Mike visibility.
Maybe "size" is the wrong word.
But at about the 13:40 mark of that video, he states that the pilot was not authorized to make that landing based on the category aircraft (C) he was flying.
If I understand this correctly, he was in the wrong plane for that particular approach.
“
At about the thirteen minute mark, Captain Steve states that the plane size precluded it from the type of approach the pilot was making.”
He incorrectly stated it to be a Cat C but it is a Cat B which is authorized with 3/4 mile visibility.
https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/2022-08/FSBR_CE-500_Rev_2_Draft.pdf
Gotcha.
Yes he could have and he would have been unaffected by the marine layer fog.
If you insist on violating the approach procedures, what difference does it make to have the tower personnel there? No radar, just eyes. You pork up the approach, you may make it, but your chances drop. No one in the tower, ever landed an aircraft.
“Yes he could have and he would have been unaffected by the marine layer fog.”
El Cajon weather: fog, fog, fog
There was no fog there that night.
Yeah, the next people who are going to be on his plane or meeting him at that airport. No telling where they were going, maybe they hired a fractional jet to go up to San Francisco, or over to Vegas, maybe down to Cabo. He could’ve probably got another leg and before calling it a day.
“There was no fog there that night.”
“Observed Weather in May 2025 in El Cajon” chart shows fog that morning and the previous two.
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