A twin-engine Cessna plowed right into a house near the Monterey Airport Tuesday morning, and while the house was empty, the pilot, a passenger, and a dog all did in the crash.
We’re sure you’ll feel very safe sitting in your home today with the news that an airplane crashed straight into a house some five miles southeast of Monterey late Tuesday morning. The Monterey County Regional Fire Protection District reports that a small aircraft took off from Monterey Regional Airport this morning, but at 10:45 a.m. crashed directly into a house in the Monterra Ranch subdivision near Highway 68.
Monterey airport says FAA and NTSB investigators en route from Seattle to investigate crash of twin engine plane that crashed in Monterra Ranch neighborhood shortly after takeoff, catching two homes on fire.. live reports @ksbw at 5&6.. photo: Brian Poma pic.twitter.com/4du8HNU9EE
— Felix Cortez (@FelixKSBW) July 13, 2021
Local TV station KSBW reports that the craft was a “small, twin-engine Golden Eagle Cessna plane." KPIX adds that the resulting fire spread to a second home, and also started a brush fire which has since been extinguished.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Listen to the audio from air traffic control as a twin-engine plane crashes into a home in Monterey. (Credit: https://t.co/lZq5IhLuMs) pic.twitter.com/QA2pp7w9rI
— KSBW Action News 8 (@ksbw) July 13, 2021
SFGate reviewed data from the plane-tracking FlightAware and that the “flight that departed Monterey Regional Airport shortly before 10:40 a.m. was only in the air a few minutes before tracking dropped out.” In the above video from KSBW, you can hear the air traffic controllers discuss the dangerously low altitude of the plane and the crash itself, in tones far calmer than I would be able to maintain in that situation.
A Cessna 421C based at the Monterey Airport crashed two minutes after taking off this morning. The aircraft was turning back to the airport and had a very high airspeed and descent rate in the last few seconds. https://t.co/mgm6mdFa6G
— Max Trescott (@MaxTrescott) July 13, 2021
Per another local station, KION, the Monterey County Sheriff's Office originally said that the pilot was the only person onboard the plane, but that has since turned out not to be the case.
As KSBW reported Wednesday, the plane was owned and being piloted by Mary Ellen Carlin of Pacific Grove. She was flying her friend, 61-year-old Alice Diane Emig of Rancho Cordova to Mather, near Sacramento, when the plane crashed. Emig's dachshund Toby was also reportedly onboard.*
Video from neighbor of the plane crash in Monterra neighborhood in Monterey. CORRECTION: @mcrfd says the plane only hit 1 home, which is believed to be empty. pic.twitter.com/2Ocnm49rYf
— Alani Letang (@AlaniLetang) July 13, 2021
One relief is that no one was home inside the house at the time of the collision. Monterey County Weekly tracked down the owners Roger and Julie Goulart, for whom this is a second home. "I don't know anything yet. We weren't home," Roger Goulart told the paper. "My daughter was staying there but fortunately she wasn't home at the time this happened."
*This post has been updated with information about the crash victims.
Related: Small Plane On Weird Course Over City Tailed By Fighter Jets Causes Stir, Mild Panic [SFist]
Image: Monterey County Regional Fire Protection District via Twitter
