Plane slams car on I- 15; 1 is killed
An auto passenger dies, and five other people are hurt. The pilot suffers lifethreatening injuries.
A small plane crashed into a car on Interstate 15 in northern San Diego County on Saturday, leaving one person dead and f ive injured, officials said.
The incident happened about 9: 15 a. m. near state Route 76 south of Fallbrook. Two people reportedly were aboard the plane, and four were in the vehicle.
The airplane was initially described as a small jet by a witness, according to the California Highway Patrol’s website. Traffic was jammed in the area, but the plane was mostly off the freeway, partially in some bushes.
CHP Officer Chris Parent said the driver was stopped on the shoulder trying to sync his Bluetooth with his vehicle when the car was struck by the plane from behind.
A passenger in the right rear of the car, a woman in her 20s, was killed, said North County Fire Protection District spokesman John Buchanan. Three others in the car — two men and a woman — were taken to a hospital with minor to moderate injuries. It took f irefighters about 20 minutes to remove one of the occupants.
The pilot suffered lifethreatening injuries. It was not known the extent of injuries to the plane’s passenger.
At a news conference, a CHP spokesman said the Federal Aviation Administration was investigating the cause of the crash. Witnesses told investigators that the plane appeared to have mechanical problems.
Motorist John Marshall told KGTV- TV in San Diego that when he saw what had happened, he got out of his car to help. Seeing the pilot trapped inside the plane, Marshall said, he got a hammer from his car and broke open the plane’s door.
Another witness, Jacob Duncan, described to KNSD- TV how the plane came to crash into the vehicle. “The plane touched down about 40 feet behind my car, and it slid about another 40 feet,” he said. “One car was stopped on the shoulder. It slammed right
into the back of them.”