Posted on 05/23/2025 5:59:52 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The runway lights were out, a weather alert system wasn’t working and there was heavy fog at a San Diego airport when a pilot who had flown across the country made the decision to proceed with landing but came up short and crashed into a neighborhood, killing all six aboard the aircraft, investigators said Friday.
Investigator Dan Baker of the National Transportation Safety Board said officials will work over the next year to determine what caused the Cessna 550 Citation to crash just before 4 a.m. local time Thursday. The jet was carrying a music executive and five others.
No one in the neighborhood of U.S. Navy housing died, but eight people were treated for smoke inhalation...
The pilot acknowledged the weather conditions for landing at the small airport were not ideal and debated diverting to a different airport while discussing the visibility with an air traffic controller at a regional Federal Aviation Administration control tower, according to audio of the conversation posted by LiveATC.net.
The Federal Aviation Administration had posted an official notice for pilots that the lights were out of service, but it’s not known whether the pilot had checked it.
He didn’t discuss the lights being out with air traffic control, but was aware that the airport’s weather alert system was inoperable. Ultimately, the pilot is heard saying that he’ll stick with the plan to land at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport.
“Doesn’t sound great but we’ll give it a go,” he told the air traffic controller.
The plane crashed about 2 miles from the airport. Baker said a power surge knocked out the weather system at the airport but the pilot was aware of the fog and an air traffic controller gave him weather information from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, about 4 miles north.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
“Doesn’t sound great but we’ll give it a go,”
Oh my.
I guess the drummer wasn’t THAT famous if they didn’t bother to say his/her name in the first couple of paragraphs.
The pilot was incredibly stupid.
Agreed!
The name was not familiar to me.
Well, his car was at this airport so....
Although it would seem to me that the business aspects of things (being late to a meeting, not landing where your car is, etc.) MIGHT play a factor in the decision making. Whereas if you just have a pilot that is only a pilot, he doesn't care if you are late.
Seems more like he didn’t reset his altimeter for local barometric pressure. At and above 18,000 feet, altimeter are universally set to 29.92. Then when decending for the approach to land, the altimeter is set to the actual local pressure. High to low, look out below.....Not setting for the local pressure can find you are hundreds of feet off. An instrument approach with a 600’ Minimum descent requirement could find you plowing dirt in a fireball.
“former drummer for metal band The Devil Wears Prada.”
The “famous drummer”.
The plane wasn't qualified to land at Montgomery Field under those conditions. The airport was shut down for the night, and the marine layer was dense with visibility below minimums.
Bad decisions compounded by missing altitude minimums on approach and hitting a hilltop powerline.
Would not like to hear my pilot say that!
What about “Hold muh beer and watch this”?
Wow - I experienced similar circumstances at probably that same airport 50 years ago. I was with a young Navy Lieutenant that had recently gotten his pilot’s license. We took off from San Diego (where we were both stationed). In the evening coming back, the field was fogged in, so being a younger pilot, he opted to land near Big Bear. I don’t recall how we got back to the ship. Glad he made the right decision.
The pilot FAFO’D, he flew the instrument approach too low and hit powerlines. It is extremely lucky that no one on the ground was killed.
As a current Instrument rated pilot myself, he made a bad choice...
Lots of holes in the “Swiss cheese” he flew through. The airport was also below weather minimums for his instrument type but he elected to try anyway. From what I’ve seen he was a “hot shot” pilot or at least thought he was. As the saying goes “there are old pilots and bold pilots, but no old bold pilots.
What could possibly go wrong?
Give it a go pilots are not very good.
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