San Diego Plane Crash

Investigators say at least four people are dead following a mid-air collision between two planes.

A twin-engine Sabreliner crashed with a single-engine Cessna 172 around 11 a.m. local time on Sunday some two miles (3 km) from Brown Field Airport in San Diego County, Schuler said.

The crashed Sabreliner jet was leased by army contractor BAE Techniques, which reportedly stated in a press release that a few of its staff have been on board.

According to its website, the company has a shipyard in San Diego and has contracts with the U.S. Navy to train pilots. Two small grass fires were ignited by crash debris and were quickly extinguished.

A contractor working with BAE Systems on the training flight was also killed.

“It appears that it was a very violent crash as you can tell by both aircrafts that are in multiple pieces”, Cal Fire Division Chief Nick Schuler said, according to KNSD-TV, adding: “We don’t know anything about the identities the victims nor where they were taking off or where they were going”.

The planes reportedly caught hearth after falling to the bottom and breaking up.

The crash is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

A California Highway Patrol officer, who was the first to arrive at the scene, radioed a dispatcher: “Debris is scattered everywhere”.

Both planes were attempting to land when the BAE Systems plane collided with the Cessna over Brown Field Municipal Airport, according to NTSB investigator Andrew Swick. The Sabreliner jet went down on a grassy slope and the Cessna crashed inside the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge.

One firefighter was taken to the hospital after he suffered a minor heat-related exhaustion injury.