A Cessna C550 business jet, veiled in foggy conditions, met its tragic end during a second landing attempt, igniting a devastating fire and leaving six passengers dead.
The incident, which involved a private jet, occurred on Saturday, July 8, at approximately 4:15 am in Murrieta, 80 miles from Los Angeles, as confirmed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). A distress signal from the jet paved the way for the Riverside County Fire Department’s laborious hour-long firefighting, extending to an adjacent acre of vegetation around French Valley Airport, which was also singed in the ensuing fire.
According to Elliott Simpson, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the airplane missed the landing strip by about 500 feet. During his brief to the media, he described a scenario where everything except the tail section of the 13-passenger jet was consumed by the raging fire, leaving investigative teams to piece together a 200-feet-long debris field.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, in a released statement, confirmed the catastrophic loss of all six lives on board, including two pilots. Those deceased were later identified as Riese Lenders, 25, Lindsey Gleiche, 31, Manuel Vargas-Regalado, 32, Abigail Tellez-Vargas, 33, Ibrahem Razick, 46, and Alma Razick, 51, by the Riverside County Coroner’s Office.
The NTSB investigation indicated that the plane, originating from Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, was bound for Murrieta, a journey typically lasting 45 minutes. The fateful crash occurred during the plane’s second approach. The pilots were cleared for an instrument landing due to the low visibility, Simpson added.
Despite weather conditions being at the bare minimum acceptable level for a landing, the plane’s pilots went ahead with the attempt. Analysts will now investigate communication records between the pilots and air traffic control. A preliminary report by the NTSB is expected to be made public soon.
This incident marks the second fatal crash within a week at the county-owned Murrieta airport, serving a population of nearly 112,000. On July 4, a Cessna 172 single-engine aircraft crashed in a parking lot just after taking off from French Valley, resulting in one death and three injuries. Both incidents are now under extensive investigation.
