2 dead after small plane crashes into San Diego neighborhood

(SAN DIEGO) — At least two people are confirmed dead and eight others injured after a small plane crashed in a neighborhood of San Diego on Thursday morning, spewing jet fuel and starting a large fire that damaged about 10 buildings and multiple cars, fire officials said.

The small private jet crashed seconds before landing at about 3:45 am. local time, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Five people were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and a sixth person was injured while climbing out of a window, officials said. Two others were treated for minor injuries. All the injuries were treated at the evacuation center and no one was transferred from the scene.

All the fatalities appear to be from the plane itself, San Diego Assistant Fire Chief of Emergency Operations Dan Eddy said at a press conference earlier Thursday. Officials do not yet know how many people were aboard the plane.

Multiple homes have been destroyed in the neighborhood, according to Eddy, who said earlier the crash site looked “like a movie scene.” One home was permanently destroyed, officials said Thursday.

There was dense fog in the area on Thursday morning and Eddy told reporters he could only see 40 to 50 feet in front of him.

In air traffic control audio from minutes before the crash, you can hear the pilot ask about the weather, according to LiveATC.net. Air traffic controllers told the pilot the weather station at Montgomery Airport was down and the pilot asks for more weather information.

The controller tells him the weather for nearby Miramar Airport, according to the audio.

“Ugh, that doesn’t sound great, but we’ll give it a go,” the pilot responds.

The plane was flying from Wichita, Kansas, to San Diego’s Montgomery Gibbs Executive Airport when it crashed. The plane originated in Teterboro, according to FlightRadar24 records, before landing in Wichita at 1:50 a.m. Central time. It left for San Diego at 2:35 a.m. local time.

It was roughly 500 feet in the air at its last radar check-in, according to the FAA.

Over 100 people have been displaced as a result of the crash, according to officials. Murphy Canyon, the neighborhood where the crash happened, is one of largest military housing units in the world, according to San Diego Naval Base Commanding Officer Capt. Robert Heely.

Multiple elementary schools have been closed for the day due to the crash, according to officials

“Our city will be supporting these families who are impacted here. They’re part of the military community that makes up our city,” San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said at a press conference.

Several factors contributed to the crash, according to Gloria.

“Visibility was relatively low at the hour that the fight was making its approach to Montgomery Gibbs, the plane clipped a transmission line, an electricity transmission line and that caused it to fall into the Murphy Canyon neighborhood that’s there,” Gloria said in an interview on ABC News Live.

“Beyond that, we’re going to wait for our professionals at the federal level to give us some more of the investigative results. But right now, [this] is a terrible tragedy of the loss of life of those aboard the plane,” Gloria said.

The plane that crashed can hold eight to 10 people, including the pilot, but it’s still unclear how many were on board.

“I can’t quite put words to describe what this scene looks like, but with the jet fuel going down the street and everything on fire all at once, it was pretty horrific to see for the police officers and firefighters to run in there, start trying to evacuate people out of the way, and doing anything and everything they could to try to save somebody’s life is really heroic,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said at a press conference.

Residents were evacuated to a nearby school and officials went home to home to find out if there was anybody inside, Eddy said.

“I was half-asleep and I saw a flash at the window and heard a bang,” said Jennifer Hoffman, who lives a couple blocks from the crash. “I thought it was lightning to be honest, I even checked the weather to see if it was raining out. And then I heard like bunches of pops and I was like, ‘That can’t be lightning.’ I went downstairs, I checked outside and I saw the neighborhood behind us was bright red. It was awful.”

The plane directly hit multiple homes and cars, setting them ablaze, before running down the street, Eddy said.

“There was a big explosion and I woke up, I looked out the window and there was fire all in front of my house,” said neighborhood resident Jessica Schrader. “I just kept hearing explosions and the fire was up to right in front of my front door. So I’m trying to figure out how to escape with my kids.”

“We yelled for our neighbors — our neighbors put a ladder up to their fence, it’s about 8-foot-tall,” she said. “We were able to climb the ladder and jump onto their trampoline to escape — me and my children.”

There was no mayday call before this crash, according to radio traffic. The last communication was the pilot announcing on the radio that he was 3 miles out and landing. The tower was closed at the time and this is standard procedure.

The whole neighborhood is still on lockdown as investigators continue their work.

The National Transportation Safety Board was also en route to the scene.

ABC News’ Sam Sweeney and Ayesha Ali contributed to this report.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.