California plane crash: Airplane goes down in Marin Headlands, killing Sacramento mom Jennifer Fox, Jesuit High School says

SAN FRANCISCO — Two people were killed Friday after their single engine plane went down in Northern California.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash, which happened in Marin Headlands, northwest of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.

The video is from an earlier report. Stay with ABC7 News on this developing story.

Cyclists in the Marin Headlands were taking in views of the Golden Gate but plane crash wreckage located just several hundred yards from bridge stopped many in their tracks.

“It’s really sad it looks straight out of a movie,” said Sue Hutner.

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Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were examining the charred wreckage of the plane, where a pilot and passenger died. Officials say the experimental single-engine Vans RV-10 crashed on the ridgetop around noon Friday.

Jennifer “JJ” Fox of Sacramento is identified as one of the two killed in Friday’s plane crash in the Marin Headlands, according to a post on Jesuit High School’s website.

Jesuit High School says Fox is a mother to a sophomore student attending the school, adding that Fox’s friend also died in the plane crash.

An acquaintance of Fox told ABC7 News that Fox once owned the Simply Spa in Sacramento, one of the first day spas in the city.

“We do know the plane took off from Sacramento,” said NTSB Investigator Eleazar Nepomuceno.

Investigators say the plane’s destination was unknown. An emergency beacon helped first responders locate the wreckage. At the time of the crash, there was heavy fog in the area.

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“It was was a pea soup fog on Friday afternoon,” said National Park Service ranger Charlie Strickfaden.

Investigators have not determined if weather was a factor in the crash but confirmed the pilot was using VFR, visual flight rules to navigate not IFR or instrument flight rules, typically used in bad weather.

“We know there was fog in the area, however we will gather all the information and meteorological information to see how the plane interacted with the environment,” Nepomuceno added.

Investigators plan to remove the aircraft from the crash site Sunday and take the wreckage to Sacramento for further analysis. It could be months before a cause of the crash is determined.