A Cessna C550 business jet, veiled in foggy conditions, met its tragic end during a second landing attempt, igniting a devastating fire and leaving six passengers dead.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has confirmed the harrowing incident, which saw the business jet crash at around 4:15 am on Saturday, July 8, in Murrieta, 80 miles from Los Angeles. It took the Riverside County Fire Department over an hour to douse the rampant flames, a task complicated by an acre of nearby vegetation that was also set ablaze near French Valley Airport.
Elliott Simpson, a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator, reported that the aircraft, with a capacity of 13 passengers, crashed approximately 500 feet away from the runway. During a press conference, he explained that the major part of the airplane, except the tail section, was devoured by the inferno. This left the investigation teams to comb through a 200-feet-long debris field.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office released a sorrowful statement affirming that all six people on the plane had perished. The Riverside County Coroner’s Office later identified these individuals, two of whom were pilots, as Riese Lenders, 25, Lindsey Gleiche, 31, Manuel Vargas-Regalado, 32, Abigail Tellez-Vargas, 33, Ibrahem Razick, 46, and Alma Razick, 51.
NTSB’s probe revealed that the ill-fated aircraft, destined for Murrieta, took off from Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, a usually 45-minute journey. The crash transpired during its second approach to land. Given the poor visibility, the pilot had been given clearance for an instrument landing, Simpson explained.
Despite the weather conditions being at their lowest acceptable levels, the landing was attempted. As part of the ongoing investigation, communication between the pilot and air traffic control is being reviewed. A preliminary report from the NTSB will be released within two weeks.
The crash was the second deadly incident at the county-run Murrieta airport, catering to nearly 112,000 residents, within a week. Earlier, on July 4, a Cessna 172 single-engine plane crashed in a parking lot after takeoff from French Valley, resulting in one fatality and three injuries. Investigations into both crashes are in progress.
