Four people were killed as a small jet and single-engine Cessna collided in midair Sunday and caused a brush fire near Brown Field at Otay Mesa.
The San Diego County Sheriff‘s Department confirmed that none of the people in the two small aircraft survived the crashes, near the R.J. Donovan Correction Center.
“Start FAA. Debris is scattered everywhere” was the terse report from a California Highway Patrol officer to dispatchers, following the collision and crashes, which were at 11:04 a.m.
Spot fires burned for more than one hour in brush north of the crash, a fire dispatcher told City News Service. But they were out by 1 p.m.
The collision was near the Brown Field Municipal Airport, a busy general aviation facility about one mile north of the international boundary and about 8 miles northeast of San Ysidro.
Cal Fire identified the planes as a twin-engine Saberliner and a single- engine Cessna 172. The death toll was originally reported as two, then three, then four, as the afternoon wore on and grisly discoveries were made.
Firefighters from San Diego, Chula Vista and Cal Fire worked on the crash aftermath and rash of brushfires. One firefighter, from Chula Vista, was taken to a hospital for treatment of heat exhaustion, Cal Fire said.
— City News Service
