Multiple people dead, including Story of the Year music agent Dave Shapiro in California fireball plane crash
Multiple people, including a music industry executive and a former metal band drummer, have died after a small plane crashed onto a California street.
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Multiple people have died including music industry big shot David Shapiro after a plane crashed in a California neighbourhood setting more than a dozen homes and cars on fire.
Officials have so far been unable to confirm the exact number of victims after the small plane crashed – and possibly hit a power line – while landing in heavy fog. Former The Devil Wears Prada drummer Daniel Williams is also dead.
Shapiro, 42, was the co-founder of Sound Talent Group (STG), whose clients include bands Sum 41, Story of the Year and Parkway Drive.
“We are devastated by the loss of our co-founder, colleagues and friends … Thank you so much for respecting their privacy at this time,” the agency said in a statement shared with Billboard.
Williams, shortly before the flight took off, posted to his stories what appeared to be the doomed plane with the caption “Flying back with @davevelocity.” The drummer also posted two pictures of the plane controls, writing “Hey. Hey … you … look at me … I’m the (co)pilot now.”
The small plane crashed in the Murphy Canyon neighbourhood of San Diego just before 4am local time (9pm AEST), reported local media.
Police and fire officials said there was a direct hit upon about 15 homes, and multiple vehicles – which were set alight in a massive fireball.
Investigators believe no one aboard the plane survived. At least eight people on the ground were injured.
“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 – we have jet fuel all over the place. Our main goal is to search all these homes and get everybody out right now,” Assistant Fire Department Chief Dan Eddy said.
“There are more than one fatality that we found so far, but we’re waiting to get the registered numbers that were on the plane itself,” he said, adding that there were no reported deaths or serious injuries among people on the ground.
The aircraft can carry between eight and 10 passengers, he added.
He also said “there is a direct hit to multiple homes” in the Murphy Canyon neighbourhood. Hazmat teams were at the scene.
Assistant Fire Chief Eddy confirmed it was very foggy at the time the private plane crashed. “You could barely see in front of you,” he added.
He also said during a press conference that they will be investigating whether the plane hit a power line.
A police spokesman described the horrific impact as “a movie-style scene”.
Residents reported being woken up by a large “boom.”
One local woman told local media that when she saw a wall of orange flames outside her home, she quickly realised she had to make a speedy escape.
She left the scene with other neighbours.
A man who also heard a large explosion said he saw the plane plummeting to the ground.
When he saw a “trail of orange” and the “sky light up orange” following the crash, he knew he had to immediately evacuate his family.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the plane was a Cessna 550 aircraft.
“The number of people on board is unknown at this time,” the FAA said in a statement.
The plane can carry six to eight people.
It was a flight coming in from the Midwest, according to officials.
The incident is the latest in a series of fatal plane crashes in the US.
The most deadly was the collision of a passenger jet and a military helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington DC, which killed 67 people in January.
In February, an airliner clipped another while taxiing at the Seattle airport – one of many such collisions reported this year.
Then in March, an American Airlines plane caught fire after landing in Denver, sending 12 people to the hospital.
Last month, the crash of a small plane in New York killed all six on board — a physician couple and their children and partners — during a family trip to the Catskills.
– with AFP
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Originally published as Multiple people dead, including Story of the Year music agent Dave Shapiro in California fireball plane crash
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