The remaining victims of those on a private jet that crashed into a San Diego neighborhood and burst into flames have been identified.
Emma Huke, 25, Kendall Fortner, 24, Dominic Damian, and Celina Kenyon, 36, were identified as the four individuals onboard the Cessna 550 when it tragically crashed on Thursday.
They were traveling with Daniel Williams, formerly the drummer of the Christian metalcore band The Devil Wears Prada, and the pilot, Dave Shapiro, when the aircraft descended onto a neighborhood road.
Shapiro was a co-founder of music agency Sound Talent Group that both Huke and Fortner had worked for.
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, according to aircraft registration records.
California native Fortner was a graduate of San Diego State University and had joined the company out of college as a booking associate.
The company described her as being ‘fiercely independent and strong-willed’, saying she was ‘the life of the party and lit up any room she entered’.
She leaves behind her parents, Gary and Kristin, her brother Justin and his wife Hannah, along with their son Theo, and her brother Jordan and his wife Kailey.
Huke, seen here, had joined the company last year as a booking associate and was a graduate of the University of Oregon
This undated photo released by the family of Kendall Fortner shows her posing for a photo
Kenyon was a professional photographer and her social media profiles show her snapping shots of musicians
NBC San Diego reported that Damian was friends with Shapiro for years, and was working as a software engineer
Huke, from Orange County, had joined the company last year as a booking associate and was a graduate of the University of Oregon.
A statement said: ‘There was nothing Emma loved more than live music. She worked hard to save up money so she could travel to concerts and festivals.
‘And while she loved all genres of music, her favorite artists to see live were Taylor Swift and The 1975.’
Huke is survived by her parents, Tim and Allison, and her younger sibling Ellis.
Kenyon was a professional photographer and her social media profiles show her snapping shots of musicians.
Her mother Jennifer shared a post to her social media on Friday saying that her family was ‘devastated beyond words’, adding: ‘The world has lost a beautiful bright light.’
According to her mom, Kenyon had been traveling home to San Diego on the jet rather than a commercial flight so she could take her daughter to school.
NBC San Diego reported that Damian was friends with Shapiro for years, and was working as a software engineer. His jiu-jitsu gym is holding a remembrance event for him this coming Monday.
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.
The plane never made it to its final destination of San Diego’s Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport, crashing down in a ball of flames just before 4am local time.
Investigators said on Friday that the runway lights were out, a weather alert system wasn’t working and there was heavy fog at the airport when Shapiro tried to land.
Daniel Williams is pictured performing at the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival at San Manuel Amphitheater on June 30, 2012. Williams survived a mass shooting back in 2019
Shapiro 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
The plane never made it to its final destination of San Diego’s Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport, crashing down in a ball of flames just before 4am local time
The National Transportation Safety Board said officials would work over the next year to determine an official cause for how the plane crashed.
Assistant San Diego Fire Department Chief Dan Eddy said the fog was so thick in the morning that ‘you could barely see in front of you.’
Former NTSB and FAA crash investigator Jeff Guzzetti said he thinks dense fog and fatigue after the pilot flew all night long were likely factors in the crash.
‘This accident has all the earmarks of a classic attempt to approach an airport in really bad weather and poor visibility,’ Guzzetti said. ‘And there were other airports that the crew could have gone to.’
He said pilots are required to check FAA posts called Notices to Airmen that alert pilots to any issues such as runway lights being out.
‘It´s fairly easy for the pilot to get that information and they are required to get that information before any flight they take,’ Guzzetti said.
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 in New Jersey late Wednesday night as he boarded the flight, tagging Shapiro in the image.
Debris covers the ground after a small plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, setting homes and cars on fire and forcing evacuations
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.
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
After it emerged that Williams was on board the doomed aircraft, his band posted a heartbreaking tribute to him on social media.
‘No words,’ the band said. ‘We owe you everything. Love you forever.’
More than 50 police officers responded to the scene within minutes and began evacuating homes.
At least 100 residents were displaced to an evacuation center at a nearby elementary school after at least 10 houses were burned or hit by debris from the crash.
Amazingly nobody died on the ground, but eight people were injured in the collision.
Charred cars, burned tree limbs, melted trash cans, glass and pieces of white and blue metal were scattered around.
