4 Killed in Crash of Private Jet in San Luis Obispo
A private jet crashed as the pilot attempted to land in a heavy fog Monday morning at a municipal airport, killing all four people aboard, authorities said.
The names of the occupants were not immediately available.
The twin-engine Cessna Citation, registered to a helicopter company in Newport, Ore., had taken off from Van Nuys Airport. It crashed at 7:03 a.m. in a field about three miles northwest of the San Luis Obispo Airport, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Fred O’Donnell said.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known.
Minutes before the crash, the pilot reported that the craft had passed the airport’s outer marker and was headed for a landing.
San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Sgt. Leon Cole said four people were confirmed dead.
Searchers spent several hours looking for a fifth person originally reported to be aboard. It was later determined that the person did not board the plane, Cole said.
Wreckage from the Citation, a jet that can carry as many as a dozen people, was strewn over a wide area east of Madonna Road. Firefighters put out several spot fires that erupted in some parts of the wreckage.
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