At Least 2 Dead, 8 Injured After Private Plane Crashes into San Diego Neighborhood

Two people are confirmed dead and eight others were injured after a private jet crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, authorities said in an update hours after the crash.

The San Diego Police Department confirmed the death toll in a post on X and said that around 10 buildings in the neighborhood were damaged in the early morning crash on Thursday, May 22. The victims have not yet been publicly identified by authorities.

Preliminary information previously obtained by PEOPLE said the Federal Aviation Administration said a Cessna 550 crashed near San Diego’s Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport at approximately 3:45 a.m., local time.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating. PEOPLE has contacted the San Diego Police Department and San Diego Fire-Rescue for more information.

The crash occurred amid foggy weather in the U.S. military’s largest housing neighborhood, damaging several parked vehicles, too, though it’s also unknown what caused the incident, the Associated Press reported.

“I just walked it myself, and down the street itself, it looks like something from a movie,” San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Assistant Chief Dan Eddy, according to NBC News.

San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl noted that jet fuel was “going down the street and everything on fire all at once,” telling the outlet that “it was pretty horrific to see.”

Although additional information has yet to be shared, Eddy said that all of the fatalities occurred on the plane, the outlet reported.

Officials earlier said that no one from the affected homes was transported for medical attention, but at a later briefing, police officer Anthony Carrasco said five people from a single family were hospitalized for smoke inhalation, the AP reported.

He noted that one person was taken to the hospital after he was injured while climbing out of a window trying to escape. Two others were treated for minor injuries at the scene.