Haunting video shows plane slam into homes killing 6 in San Diego after pilot was left flying blind as equipment failed
Six people in total are feared to have died in the high-impact smash that claimed the life of rocker Daniel Williams.
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Ring doorbell footage captured the impact of the Cessna plane crash just after 3:45 am local time.
A ball of fire could be seen in the background, according to the footage recorded by David Nero's device and seen by the NBC affiliate KNSD-TV.
The night sky was illuminated by the bursts of light, and then plumes of smoke could be seen billowing.
In the moments leading up to the crash, the pilot had to navigate a series of challenges.
Heavy fog blanketed the neighborhood as the plane tried to land at an executive airport in the city.
It has since emerged that no visibility readings were logged between the hours of 9pm Wednesday and 6am on Thursday, according to National Weather Service data seen by the Fox affiliate KUSI-TV.
The private jet's pilot contacted a station at Montgomery-Gibbs airport before turning to the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar - located eight miles away.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators also revealed the control tower at Montgomery-Gibbs was closed at the time.
In order to land at the airfield, pilots must have a visibility of at least three miles, as per the Federal Aviation Administration.
An automatic weather report from the airport did not have any data for visibility and wind, as reported by the ABC affiliate KGTV-TV.
Information linked to the airport's sky condition was also missing.
Audio recordings, heard by the outlet, revealed the pilot said he would try to land the plane despite the poor conditions.
'Doesn't sound great, but we'll give it a go,' the pilot said.
Investigators have not revealed a cause behind the smash, but they're probing several factors - the weather being one of those.
David Soucie, a CNN aviation analyst, believes it's unlikely that the plane ran out of fuel.
He pointed out the fact that jet fuel was spattered across the streets in Tierrasanta - located around 10 miles from downtown San Diego.
The jet, which can carry up to 10 people, smashed into power lines before colliding into a house, according to investigators.
Fuel ignited, which saw cars torched and turned into shells by the side of the road.
Doesn't sound great, but we'll give it a go.
Pilot
Around 100 people in the neighborhood were evacuated and eight people were injured.
Cars were in a mangled state and debris was strewn across the road.
Locals initially thought an earthquake had struck before they realized what had happened.
"My kids woke up as well, they looked out the window and started screaming,' one local told the CBS affiliate KCAL-TV.
FIERY SCENE
'My whole front area was on fire. We were trapped in our home and couldn't get out.'
Williams and music titan, Dave Shapiro, are the only two victims that have been named.
Williams was formerly a drummer for the Christian rock band The Devil Wears Prada.
He boasted about being on board the private plane and joked he was at the controls in posts uploaded to his Instagram Stories.
Williams' dad later clarified that his son was goofing around, per TMZ.
But Shapiro had a pilot license and boasted about his accomplishment in an Instagram post from 2020.
And, he shared videos of himself performing maneuvers such as loops and inverted rolls.
"Social distancing 6,000 feet from other people is more effective than 6ft," the caption of one of his videos stated.
The videos were taken in March 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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