A plane crashed this Monday night in the El Cajon area, in southern California, leaving no survivors, according to authorities.
The Learjet was scheduled to land at a local airfield when it fell just after 7 p.m., according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.
Firefighters found no survivors at the scene, authorities said in a news release. They did not specify how many victims were found. No one was injured on the ground, the sheriff’s department said in a news release. The forensic doctor will investigate and identify the victims once the next of kin have been notified.
The sheriff’s department said the plane was a Learjet, and authorities do not know how many people were on board, Citizen Free Press affiliate KGTV reported. A home was damaged and power lines were downed in the area, the sheriff’s department said.
“The plane was scheduled to land at Gillespie Field in El Cajon. At this time, we have no information about the origin of the plane or the number of people on board. Firefighters could not find any survivors at the scene of the accident,” the sheriff’s department said.
“When firefighters arrived at the scene, it was raining heavily and there was a large field of debris that stretched about 200 feet,” Lakeside Fire Protection District Chief Don Butz told Citizen Free Press.
“Firefighters observed a major fireball and smoke from the fire station – the fire station is half a mile from the scene,” Butz said.
The chief said a vehicle was also damaged.
There was rain in the area with breezy conditions, Citizen Free Press meteorologist Pedram Javaheri reported. The El Cajon observation site showed light winds of 15 to 25 kilometers per hour near the time of the accident, but the gusts were much higher in the nearby foothills, with peaks of 65-70 km / h, Javaheri said.
Weather observations from Gillespie Field showed visibility was less than 1,600 meters at 6:50 p.m., with cloud tops below 500 feet, which would have forced the pilot of the plane to follow instrument flight rules, noted Javaheri. Conditions lasted until 8 pm, when visibility returned to 4800-8000 meters.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have been notified and will handle the investigation of the plane crash, the Sheriff’s Department said.
El Cajon is about 10 miles east of San Diego.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by the plane crash,” the sheriff’s department said.