Crews plan to lift a collapsed hangar from a plane that crashed and burned Sunday at Santa Monica Airport
Valerie Vanderwest (via Twitter @valerierv)
A dark plume of smoke rises from Santa Monica Airport after a small jet crashed into a hangar during an attempted landing, according to FAA officials.
A Southern California construction company's CEO and his son were aboard a plane that burned Sunday in what authorities described asan "unsurvivable" crash at Santa Monica Airport, according to a statement from the firm.
The statement from Morely Builders identified two people aboard the small plane as CEO Mark Benjamin and his son, Luke Benjamin, a senior project engineer with the Santa Monica-based company.
"We are aware of a plane crash at Santa Monica Airport last night," according to the statement. "While we do not have specific facts, we believe that our President and CEO, Mark Benjamin, and his son, Luke Benjamin, a Senior Project Engineer with us, were on board."
The Morley Construction statement did not indicated whether there were other occupants in the twin-engine Cessna Citation. The coroner's office has not identified the victims and authorities have not determined how many people were aboard the plane.
An NTSB official said Monday afternoon the agency has not been in contact with the company.
"We have not identified or recovered any victims," said Van McKenny, of the NTSB.
NTSB officials said there is "an indication" the plane had a cockpit voice recorder. The pilot did not indicate there was a problem with the plane and authorities cannot confirm that the landing gear's tire was damaged during the landing, NTSB officials said.
"There was no communication with the pilot indicating there was a problem at any time during the flight," McKenny said.
The plane veered off the runway and crashed at the airport, located in a densely populated neighborhood about two miles from the Pacific Ocean, at about 6:20 p.m. Sunday. The plane, which departed from Hailey, Idaho, slammed into a metal storage hangar, which then collapsed around the burning wreckage.
Crews planned to use a crane Monday to lift the roof of the hangar, allowing investigators to access the plane. The crane was not expected to arrive until about 3 p.m.
A National Transportation Safety Board member official said crews are still in "recovery mode."
The airport runway remained closed Monday morning.
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