A doorbell camera recorded the terrifying moment a private jet crashed into a military neighborhood in San Diego, causing a fatal explosion and fire, claiming the lives of all passengers on board.
Six individuals were aboard the Cessna 550 Citation aircraft when it collided with a housing community owned by the Navy, ultimately crashing into a residence in the early hours of a Thursday morning.
The recently unveiled video footage depicts a massive fireball erupting into the sky following a deafening blast from the aircraft, leading to the complete engulfment of a house in flames and the spillage of jet fuel along the streets.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed that six people were onboard the doomed jet, but have not released an official number or identified the dead before investigators are still combing the scene and recovering the bodies.
However, officials have said there not believed to be any survivors aboard the flight.
Daniel Williams, former drummer of hugely-popular Christian metalcore band The Devil Wears Prada, filmed himself boarding the plane with music producer Dave Shapiro at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey late Wednesday night.
The band posted a tribute to Williams on their Instagram page, saying: ‘No words. We owe you everything. Love you forever.’
Shapiro, co-founder of Sound Talent Group, and two employees were among those killed, the music agency said in a statement.
The music producer – who also owned Velocity Records – had a pilot’s license and was listed as the owner of the plane that crashed. He had just purchased the eight-seater plane in July last year, according to aircraft registration records.
Shapiro’s 1985 Cessna 550 Citation went down around 3.45am local time, striking the Murphy Canyon neighborhood – the largest community of Navy-owned housing in the country.
Parts of the plane littered a large area, including fragments under the power lines and a section of wing on a road behind the homes.
The home that was struck was completely destroyed, with its front heavily burned and its roof partially collapsed. About 10 other properties were damaged and half a dozen vehicles ignited.
No one in the neighborhood died, but eight were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and injuries that were not life-threatening, including a person who was hurt climbing out a window.
The flight took off from Teterboro, New Jersey, near Manhattan, at about 11.15pm Wednesday and made a fuel stop in Wichita, Kansas, before continuing on to San Diego.
Based on the flight path, it was bound for Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport when it struck power lines about 2 miles southeast of the airfield, authorities said.
Audio recorded by www.liveATC.net includes a brief transmission from the pilot saying he was on final approach to the airport and was about 3 miles out at 3.45am
Just hours before the tragedy, Williams, 39, had chronicled his journey from New Jersey to California in posts on Instagram.
One eerie photo captured the Cessna 550 at Teterboro Airport late Wednesday night as he boarded the flight, tagging Shapiro in the image.
In another Instagram story, he shared a snap of the controls of the small aircraft, writing: ‘Hey. Hey… you… look at me… I’m the (co)pilot now.’
A now-haunting final post appeared to show him taking over the controls.
‘Here we gooooo’, the caption read. That was the final social media post he made.
A representative for The Devil Wears Prada referred to their social post when asked about Williams’ death.
Williams’ tragic death comes just six years after he survived a terrifying near-death experience when he was caught in the crosshairs of a horrific mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio.
On August 4, 2019, a gunman opened fire close to the entrance of the Ned Peppers bar in the popular nightlife district, killing nine victims and wounding 27 others.
The shooter, 24-year-old Connor Betts, was shot dead by law enforcement officers responding to the scene. Following the attack, Williams revealed he had a lucky escape from the gunman.
Independent music agency Sound Talent Group told DailyMail.com that three of its employees, including its co-founder Shapiro, had died in the crash.
‘We are devastated by the loss of our co-founder, colleagues and friends. Our hearts go out to their families and to everyone impacted by today’s tragedy,’ a spokesperson said.
Shapiro cofounded Sound Talent Group in 2018 with Tim Borror and Matt Andersen.
The agency’s roster focuses on alternative bands across pop-punk, metalcore, post-hardcore and other popular hard rock subgenres. Clients have included Hanson, Pierce The Veil, Parkway Drive, Sum 41 and Vanessa Carlton.
Shapiro was a strong advocate for independent musicians and a co-founder of the National Independent Talent Organization.
He was included in Billboard’s 2012 ’30 Under 30′ list recognizing rising stars in entertainment.
Industry veterans say Shapiro paved the way for the formation of other independent agencies and helped many alternative bands find audiences in the mainstream.
Shapiro said he became instantly hooked on aviation after taking his first intro flight at age 22. He seemed to love music and flying with equal passion, at one point opening an office of his talent agency at a hangar in San Diego.
Flying ‘helps me focus and helps me not be distracted by all the nonsense in the world, and whatever’s going on outside the plane kind of doesn’t matter in those moments,’ Shapiro said in a 2020 podcast interview.
Shapiro owned a flight school called Velocity Aviation and a record label, Velocity Records.
He offered flights in both San Diego and Homer, Alaska, where he and his wife, Julia Pawlik Shapiro, owned a home, according to his online posts.
The couple wed in 2016 in the small town of Talkeetna, Alaska. They picked up their wedding licenses, got on a plane and flew to a glacier inside Denali National Park, landing with skis strapped to the plane’s wheels.
In 2019, he posted on Instagram that he had obtained his airline transport pilot rating, the highest level of certification issued by the US.
‘Although I have a career and don’t plan to change that I always want to learn more and be a better pilot,’ he wrote. Shapiro was also an adrenaline junkie who enjoyed base-jumping.
Tributes poured in from musicians and others in the industry who called Shapiro warm, genuine and someone who helped bands put their names on the map.
Shapiro’s friend Ryan Bruce, a music producer, paid tribute to the pair, telling Daily Mail: ‘Dave changed mine and a lot of other people’s lives and the community he built and the network of bands he has worked with and supported will never forget him.
‘Daniel left us a lot of music to remember him by and he was a super sweet guy.’
Bruce also remembered the pair on his Instagram. He shared a photo of of Williams and his friend Shapiro with the captions ‘Rest easy’ and heart emojis.
Music executive Terrance Coughlin paid tribute to Williams and Shapiro on X.
He wrote: ‘Rest in Peace Dave Shapiro, Daniel Williams, and everyone on that flight. Some of my very first shows were booked through Dave.
‘I had a handful of shows with Daniel, always a pleasure to see him play. Gone way too soon.’
Tony Cappocchi, a music agent, also paid tribute to Shapiro, telling Daily Mail: ‘Dave was a great friend of ours.’
Dayna Ghiraldi-Travers, founder of public relations agency Big Picture Media, who worked with Shapiro for over 15 years, added: ‘He would listen to any band you put in front of him to give them a chance.’
Nate Blasdell, former lead guitarist for the band I Set My Friends on Fire, said he was ‘absolutely heartbroken.’
‘Dave was the first booking agent I ever worked with and he was a major part of my music career in my late teen years,’ he said in a post on the social platform X. ‘He was truly the best in the game and one of the most respected people in the industry.’
Sum 41 singer Deryck Whibley credits Shapiro to helping build the rock band back up during a ‘low point’ in their career.
‘His opinion mattered so much to me,’ Whibley said. ‘He was that guy I would go to for advice on things.’
During their last conversation, Shapiro had flown out in his new plane to see Sum 41’s induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in March. He promised Whibley to be back.
‘Me and my wife, we’re going to fly to you,’ Whibley said Shapiro said to him. ‘We’re going to pick you up and we’re going to go somewhere crazy for lunch.’
NTSB investigators plan to spend Friday at the scene gathering evidence, authorities have said.
It was not immediately clear what had happened, but Assistant San Diego Fire Department Chief Dan Eddy said the fog was so thick Thursday morning that ‘you could barely see in front of you’.
A nearby power line also appeared to have been clipped.
In October 2021 a twin-engine plane plowed into a San Diego suburb, killing the pilot and a UPS delivery driver on the ground and burning homes. It was preparing to land at the airport.
And in December 2008, a Marine Corps fighter jet slammed into a house in San Diego’s University City neighborhood, causing an explosion that killed four people inside. The Marine Corps blamed the crash on mechanical failure and human error.
