{"id":1051972,"date":"2026-09-09T00:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T00:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1051972\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T00:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T00:58:16","slug":"plane-was-doing-a-go-around-before-fatal-san-diego-crash-preliminary-report-says-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1051972\/","title":{"rendered":"Plane was doing a \u2018go-around\u2019 before fatal San Diego crash, preliminary report says \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

The plane that crashed at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport on Monday, killing two people, may have stalled before it hit the ground, according to an accident notification, a brief preliminary report the Federal Aviation Administration posted Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Authorities have not released the identities of the two people who were on the Cessna 172 when it crashed then burst into flames about 5:20 p.m. The occupants died at the scene.<\/p>\n

The four-seater was registered to an Idaho resident, according to FAA records. The owner appears to be a flight instructor and founder of Fly San Diego, a flight school with locations in San Diego and Idaho,\u00a0according to the school\u2019s website. No one from the business answered the phone or responded to a voicemail message Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The FAA on Tuesday included the crash on the agency\u2019s Accident and Incident Notification<\/a> page, which provides a brief preliminary description of what initial reporting indicates happened.<\/p>\n

According to the notification, the plane crashed under unknown circumstances while landing at runway 28L at the Kearny Mesa airport \u201cafter left wing dipped then (aircraft) appeared to stall and spun into ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, preliminary information indicates the plane \u201cimpacted terrain on airport property\u201d and then caught fire after the crash.<\/p>\n

The NTSB said the crash happened during a \u201cgo-around,\u201d which is essentially an aborted landing attempt that requires the pilot to keep the plane aloft to re-enter the traffic pattern and try again.<\/p>\n

An NTSB investigator was on site Tuesday to begin documenting the scene and examining the aircraft, which will be sent to a facility for further evaluation. The agency said the investigation considers three general areas: the pilot, the plane and the \u201coperating environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city-owned airport was closed immediately after the crash. One runway reopened Tuesday afternoon, but only for arrivals and departures, according to city spokesperson Jose Ysea. Pilots were not allowed to engage in pattern work.<\/p>\n

The plan, Ysea said, was to remove the plane by midday Wednesday, pending permission from the NTSB.<\/p>\n

The early indication that the plane may have stalled during a go-around comported with aviation expert Max Trescott\u2019s assessment of what may have happened. Trescott hosts the Aviation News Talk podcast and a second podcast he has dubbed NTSB News Talk, which focuses on plane accidents. He is not associated with the NTSB.<\/p>\n

Trescott said images of the destroyed plane appear to show the flaps fully down, which would impede the plane from lifting. If that was the case, the plane would have had a difficult time climbing. He said it\u2019s possible the aircraft may have \u201centered a stall spin.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The plane that crashed at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport on Monday, killing two people, may have stalled before it…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1050141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,5295,10088,1370,728,50,3549,3550,7264,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1051972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-kearny-mesa","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-sandiego","tag-top-stories-sdut","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1051972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1050141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1051972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1051972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1051972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}