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Cessna 550 Plane Crashed Into a Military Housing Community During Foggy Weather Upon Approach to Nearby Airport; Two Israeli Embassy Staffers Fatally Shot Near Jewish Museum in D.C. Aired 2-2:30p ET
Aired May 22, 2025 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:00:00]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Horrific scenes in San Diego after a plane crashes into a quiet neighborhood in the middle of the night, families forced to flee their homes, multiple people on that plane killed. We are expecting a briefing from investigators at any moment.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Plus, the man suspected of killing a young couple who worked at Israel's embassy in Washington is expected in federal court today. The 30-year-old suspect chanting "Free, free Palestine" as police took him away in handcuffs. And at the criminal trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs, a makeup artist says she didn't call police when she saw his ex-girlfriend injured because she feared the rap mogul. We are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."
KEILAR: Any moment now, San Diego officials are expected to hold a live press conference to update our breaking news, which is this deadly private plane crash that happened early this morning in a military housing community there. The city's assistant fire chief told us moments ago that officials believe six people were on board the jet. He says it appears everyone who died did come from the plane not on the ground.
SANCHEZ: The NTSB has since opened an investigation. The Cessna 550 went down just before 4:00 a.m. local time in the Murphy Canyon neighborhood. It was just a few miles from landing at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport. Officials say the flight originated from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, made a stop in Kansas, and then ran into foggy weather in the San Diego area. CNN's Stephanie Elam arrived on the scene just about an hour or so ago. Stephanie, take us through what you're seeing there.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell you that as we're preparing for this presser, I still just need you to look at this damage on this home, Boris. If you look right here and you can see -- excuse me, if I could show -- I'm showing the house live on TV. Thank you. There's -- if you look at this house with the truck right there, you can see where the bulk of the damage is. But we know about a dozen homes caught on fire. Think about it, 3:40 in the morning, here in this densely built neighborhood. I mean, this is like suburbia here. And to see this damage where they said jet fuel was rolling down both sides of the street here, and that is what caused these cars. Let me move this way. That is what caused these cars, as they're getting ready for the press conference here, to catch on fire here. We know that there was so much jet fuel that even -- they were taking some 12 animals or so.
They're taking it's a very live situation out here right now. But they're taking 12 animals. We had to get the jet fuel off of them. What is amazing though is that when you look at this damage here, not one person in these houses was killed. That is what they're telling us right now. They're also saying that they went through, they treated some people for some injuries live on the scene, but they did not have to actually transport anyone from here. We're still waiting to hear more about who was on that plane.
We do not know, but I can tell you driving down here from Los Angeles, it was foggy today. And so, that was one of the concerns. So now, just trying the press conference. So I'm going to go ahead and take a listen and send it back to you guys in the studio.
SANCHEZ: Stephanie Elam, please keep monitoring that for us. Let's actually go ahead and listen into this press briefing in San Diego following this deadly plane crash.
CHIEF ROBERT LOGAN, SAN DIEGO FIRE-RESCUE DEPARTMENT: -- we responded our units with the priority of rescue, saving lives, and preserving property. Next, I'm going to have my Assistant Chief Dan Eddie come up and explain the operations that took place moving forward from that point.
ASSISTANT CHIEF DAN EDDY, SAN DIEGO FIRE-RESCUE DEPARTMENT: Good morning, everyone. Crews arrived on scene just after 3:47, about 3:55 this morning. What they found was behind you, the scene that you see behind me right now. We had a plane that had come through this neighborhood, taken out one home. We had one home on fire, multiple cars on fire going down the street.
We initiated what's called an Alert 5, which is an upgraded for a plane off the runway. We started with the Alert 5, followed that with a second alarm to ensure we had all the units here. It's 3:45 in the morning. Our worry was the fact that people are home, people are living in their houses, and we want to ensure that we had all that done.
We started initiating the fire attack while, at the same time, going inside each structure behind us and ensuring that they were cleared out and we had no one inside those structures. Once we had an all clear on those structures, we were back into the street on the cars that were on fire, because for us, our main concern is ensuring that we get the citizens out and get those rescues complete. Crews did a great job working with San Diego PD to start evacuating the neighborhood and with the military to ensure that we are doing the right things to work with the military on that.
Great coordination by all. We were able to get knock down on the fire, start to work through and start to do secondary searches of the houses behind us and ensuring that everyone was out of those areas. We started in an evacuation area to the northwest to one of the elementary schools and started to ensure that we had everyone out of those homes. After that was (inaudible) which you see behind us. We're holding the scene for FAA, NTSB to ensure that they can get the investigation done and no evidence is tampered with or moved at all.
[14:05:00]
Once that is complete and their investigation is done, then we'll start moving back through and working with the military and San Diego PD to clear out the neighborhood and ensure that everything is complete. I'm going to pass it over to San Diego PD right now. Lieutenant Easter?
LT. TRAVIS EASTER, SAN DIEGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: We received the phone call of the incident and our officers, we responded and conducted evacuations in this area. Right now, this is still an active scene, so roads are closed. If you're looking for updates, monitor our social media accounts, X, Facebook, Instagram. We will continue to provide updates on road closures and the conditions as this incident continues. On that note, I'm going to pass it on to Captain Robert Healy.
CAPT. ROBERT HEELY, COMMANDING OFFICER, NAVAL BASE SAN DIEGO: Hey, good morning. Captain Bob Heely, Naval Base, San Diego Commanding Officer. Objective remains the safety and security of our military families who live here in this neighborhood. Over the last couple hours, we've been able to connect with them to make sure that they are taken care of and most of them have gone down to Miller Elementary, which is our evacuation site. Very pleased with the community response, in addition to the city and local officials, to provide all of the services that they need.
Primarily our job is to get them back into their homes as soon as possible. And we're working with Liberty Military Housing, who oversees this complex, to do just that. Hopefully, we expect people outside of this general area to get in by tonight. And then certainly, this area will be down for some time based on NTSB investigation. We have continued to communicate through our family information call center at (844) 523-2025. Liberty Military Housing has also released red flag messages to the family, so they have the latest and greatest information.
The base continues to message via our internal communication system as well as social media. Again, just want to thank the local community for supporting the military families and everyone for all that you've done. With that, I want to turn it over to Council Member Campillo.
RAUL CAMPILLO, SAN DIEGO COUNCILMAN: Good morning, everyone. My name is Raul Campillo. I represent City Council District 7, which includes the Tierrasanta neighborhood and Murphy Canyon neighborhood. San Diego is home to one of the largest installments of United States Military active service members and veterans. And in this particular neighborhood, we had dozens of active duty families that are suffering, that suffered some injuries and their homes have been destroyed.
But the city of San Diego, our employees, along with the military and the school district have been well coordinated from the early morning until now, and we will be throughout the rest of this tragedy. With the very sad loss of life from the plane, we know that there was many miracles and many heroic actions from our police department, from our firefighters, and the military members themselves. I heard stories over at the school just near us about military families helping military families out of their home, jumping out of windows, avoiding fire.
These are families that San Diego values. We're proud of military families who are from all over the country, but live right here in (inaudible) behind us is incredibly significant, was life threatening and thank God, nobody on the ground was killed. We're going to continue to support them through our city of San Diego personnel, our first responders, and I really encourage people to donate, to call in to our offices at City Council, the Mayor's Office to find out how to volunteer and help in ways like that.
These people are going to be recovering for a long, long time, and the city of San Diego's going to be here to support them. Thank you for being here. And I know we're going to take some questions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I have a question regarding the recent tweet from the San Diego Police Department. It says that there are two dead now and eight injured. Can you confirm that? And are the two dead from the plane?
EASTER: So that is what we have at this time. That's what we released and yes, that's why we put that out. So that can be confirmed at this time. That is the latest update. There will be a press release that will come out later on with that information as well.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you say that again? Can you repeat that?
EASTER: Confirm two dead at this time and what was the rest of that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I'm sorry. Eight injured?
EASTER: Yes. Two -- confirm two dead and eight injured at this time. We've lost two souls.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And who -- of those, who was on the plane, who was on the ground?
EASTER: That is still under the investigation at this time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know how many people were on the plane?
EASTER: We're still discovering that.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the people (inaudible) these people are in critical state, minor injuries?
EASTER: Right now, they're still being evaluated.
EDDY: I can step in on that.
EASTER: OK. Thank you.
EDDY: On the injuries that we had -- we had the two confirmed fatalities right now. We do have six that were injured. One was transported of that, of the six, the other five had minor injuries, were treated on scene and released on their own. So right now, that's what we have right now. The investigation is behind me on the fatalities is still going through.
[14:10:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were all the deaths on the planes?
EDDY: At this time, we don't know because we still have to identify who we have on the fatalities right now. But on the plane itself, that's what we'll do. That's why NTSB is here, working with other federal agencies to identify who's on the plane.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were the injuries all on the ground?
EDDY: The injuries, some of the injuries were people that were on the ground. All the injuries that we treated were people that were treated at the evacuation center. There was no one transported from scene. I can tell you this, the military families did a phenomenal job as firefighters were getting on scene to help one another, get people out of houses and going. I cannot commend them enough for what they did on scene. For us on scene, we did not transport anyone off the scene. Everything was done at the evacuation centers for any of the medical needs that were done.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can I just clarify -- ?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).
EDDY: One person was transported, minor injuries was transported from the evacuation center.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And is the NTSB here?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can I just clarify on the numbers real quick? Because we have, like you said, two dead and then there's been varying numbers with the injury.
EDDY: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So if I understand it, five people were taken for -- I was told smoke inhalation to the hospital and then we have someone who was injured climbing out of a window. So that would be six, and then two people treated for very minor injuries at the scene. So that would make it, eight. Is that correct? EDDY: Yes. I'm sorry. It is eight total. I was thinking eight in my mind of the two fatalities that were in there with the other one. So yes, it is eight total on there.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you explain to us a little bit about the community here? Is this temporary housing for the military families or is this permanent housing for them?
EDDY: So this -- this is permanent. Yeah, if you want to -- if you want to say what they're?
HEELY: Yeah, great question. So this is -- this is a military family housing neighborhood. And we have over about 2,300 in San Diego. And they work at various installations around the Metro San Diego.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) or they?
HEELY: Well, they are here as long as they're stationed here in the San Diego area. So it could be a year to many years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can we get confirmation on those numbers again?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, please.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many actually (inaudible) got mixed up.
EDDY: So what -- how about this? What number did you just say right there?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I don't want --
EDDY: I know, that's what I'm saying. That's OK. All right. So we had eight injuries and we had two fatalities, is where we're currently at right now. So eight injured, two fatalities. One of those injuries was transported. That's our current numbers. We're still assessing. Our main goal as the fire department, especially with the evacuation center, is people have been moved here. It could be hours later that people start feeling symptoms or start feeling what they're doing. So, we have EMS teams within the entire time.
So that number could change as the day goes on too. There could have been something in the last two minutes as I walked up here. But in this current point right now, what we're going to do is follow those individuals that have been evacuated and make sure that everybody's OK throughout the whole thing.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- the NTSB here, do you know?
EDDY: The NTSB is currently investigating behind us, right now, as they're walking through the scene.
(CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many got destroyed?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many homes were actually destroyed?
EDDY: So, the one permanently destroyed is this one right here behind us. We have damage to multiple homes down to the west of us on the street. That damage will be assessed. Our main concern on that damage, I don't know the full extent of the damage because our job is to preserve the scene, so NTSB can come in and do the investigation. We removed everybody from the scene, blocked it off right now. We will have better numbers on the full damage of homes after NTSB comes in and starts doing their investigation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is just the block though?
EDDY: It is just this block right now. But we have a large debris field that covers multiple streets.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was dense fog this morning? What do we know? There is a clipped power line that's being reported. What do we know as this plane was making landing toward (inaudible)?
EDDY: So as I came in this morning, when I came in this morning at about four o'clock, there was very dense fog as we came in. And some of the individuals here were at the same time. It was dense fog throughout the whole plateau that we had up here. We do have a clipped power line behind us. NTSB and FAA are looking into that to see if that was part of the problem as it came in. They will have a better understanding of that as they do the investigation.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where are the families going to be staying in the meantime? I know that, you guys had mentioned they might be able to come back as early as today. But, where are they going to be staying especially in this destroyed home?
HEELY: Yeah, we are actively working with all military families in this region because they may be out of their homes for a while. So, we're actively collaborating with Liberty Military Housing, as well as the Red Cross and others down in Miller Elementary to put them in proper lodging overnight. So that may be hotels. Some of them have chosen to stay with family and friends. So there's a lot of different options. But we will ensure that they have proper lodging tonight and all the support they need.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the Navy will be footing that bill for them or Liberty Housing?
HEELY: We will properly care for them. Yes, ma'am.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is this Navy owned property or is that correct to say -- ?
HEELY: No, it's actually, it's San Diego jurisdiction here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. So, it's -- but it's Navy owned housing?
HEELY: Correct.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) about the airplane, there was a lot of talk it was from the Midwest. Can you share what you've learned about the plane itself?
SANCHEZ: So, we've been listening to officials in this community in San Diego of Murphy Canyon where there was a plane crash very early this morning, just before 4:00 a.m. Firefighters responding to a scene where, as you can see, for almost an entire block, there were vehicles on fire.
[14:15:00]
One home at least was on fire, the damage has been reported. Notably, this is still very early on in the process of the investigation and it tells you something about the extent of the damage. The state of the plane after it crashed, that officials have given us, several different numbers for the fatalities that they have in mind. We actually just heard from Assistant Fire Chief Dan Eddy moments ago, live on CNN, describing that he understood that there were six fatalities.
Literally moments ago, he confirmed that there was a revision to that. Apparently, there are two fatalities that have been confirmed and eight injuries on the ground, several people suffering from smoke inhalation. One person apparently injured when they were exiting a window, that had to be transported to the hospital. All are expected to be OK, but at least two people killed in this plane crash, one that happened in a community where there is expansive military housing.
KEILAR: (Inaudible) military housing, which is quite frequent in the military community. He said there's -- that are there for military families from all around the country. And it is staggering as we see these pictures of how many cars are burnt out from this plane crash, that people on the ground, that there were not more casualties. It is really something that is stunning.
We've seen video of people carrying their small children who appeared to be maybe two, three, four years old as they ran out the front of their houses, trying to evacuate. And we heard officials there saying that these families just kind of got out very quickly and were able to evacuate to a local elementary school. We see pictures there of people running.
Let's bring in Mary Schiavo, CNN Transportation Analyst and Former Inspector General for the Department of Transportation. Mary, a lot of confusion over the number of fatalities here and maybe you can kind of explain that to us. We would expect they (ph) might say how many souls were on board, but they're also going to go through this process, right, of maybe trying to identify remains. So, what do you make of two dead on the plane? But that number maybe could change.
MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Right. That number could change because the local responders, the first responders go in and try to get the injured out. Their goal is to save lives. What they don't do is move the wreckage. If they don't see any other lives that they can save, they don't go in and lift up the plane. They don't move the wreckage, et cetera, unless they have reason to believe that they're someone that they can rescue.
So, it is possible when they move the wreckage, and they won't do that until the NTSB gets on the scene, that they could find other people. And that's why I think he was being careful to say as far as we know, because we know that they have not moved the wreckage, because that's not their responsibility. So that's probably why they're being careful on the numbers.
SANCHEZ: And Mary, as we await word from officials, they mentioned that the NTSB was en route to really launch their investigation and figure this thing out. We're getting some new reporting from CNN's Pete Muntean that the weather system at this airport, the automated weather system was apparently not operating as the plane that crashed was attempting to land.
Apparently, the pilot asked air traffic controllers about that weather system when they were descending at 9,000 feet. But according to air traffic control recordings, the pilot was told that the automated weather system for one reason or another, was not functional. This, as we're hearing from officials there on the ground, that there was expansive fog this morning. Does that give investigators a roadmap for where to begin their search for answers?
SCHIAVO: Yeah, already there are many clues that the NTSB will use. Now, if any system is out at the airport that is noticed. The pilots can get notice and notice to airmen and other places. So that was actually listed in some of the notices on that airport. And then of course, as you fly along, you can get weather updates by radio as you go along. So weather information is available. And the other clues that they will have is the altitude, already available on public radar sites. You can see that this aircraft was below certain altitudes, not during the flight. That it made a very uneventful flight from Wichita to begin the descent into San Diego. It was at 40,000 feet. There was very little variation in altitude or air speed, so it seemed to be performing just fine.
But as it got to the San Diego area, it was below required minimum altitudes. Every airport has something called a minimum descent altitude or a decision altitude. And when you get down to the very final few hundred or few thousand feet, depending upon your airport, final approach fix (ph), if you can't see that runway, you're supposed to do a go round.
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But this plane was below those altitudes and the NTSB is going to be asking why? Was there a problem with the plane? Were they trying to, you know, you sometimes want to see if you can make it, it'll maybe clear or whatever. But there are three peaks just to the east of this airport. And it looks, and this is just my opinion, but it looks from the radar that they had to climb just a little bit at those peaks. And there was a radio tower there. So already, the NTSB has some clues that they will look at.
Sometimes, this is called loss of situational awareness. Pilots sometimes focus so much on seeing their runway, they let their altitude dissipate. So they have a lot of clues, but something they do all the time. They'll look at the plane, the performance, the maintenance, the training, the fueling, all those, the NTSB does every time and those are already in the works. They've already requested all those documents because that's their standard operating procedure. They will have everything available that is in writing on this plane.
KEILAR: All right, Mary, that is super helpful information. Thank you, Mary Schiavo. And still to come, we are following as well some new details in the Sean "Diddy" Combs trial after musician Kid Cudi testified.
SANCHEZ: Plus, now it's up to the Republican -controlled Senate to take up President Trump's Big Beautiful Bill. How could these spending cuts though impact American families? And just weeks before the start of hurricane season, a major shakeup at FEMA. We have more coming in just a few minutes.
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[14:25:56]
SANCHEZ: We're learning new details after two staff members from the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum. The suspect, a 30-year-old man from Chicago, is expected to make his first appearance in federal court this afternoon.
KEILAR: Sources briefed on the investigation tell us that the suspect is expected to face hate crime and other federal charges. Here's Attorney General Pam Bondi after she arrived on the scene earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAM BONDI, (R) UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL: Everyone is working together as a team. FBI, ATF, our U.S. Marshals are out here trying to protect everyone. But our Jewish community must feel safe. What we saw last night was disgusting. I saw a young man's body being taken away who was about to get engaged. He had an entire life in front of him, and that was taken away. The hate has got to stop and it has to stop now. And this person will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: CNN's Alex Marquardt is outside of the Jewish Museum for us. Alex, what is the latest there?
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, on the suspect's case, big questions now, when he will make his appearance in federal court. And remember, the newly appointed Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia is Jeanine Pirro. So, this is going to be a very big case right off the bat as she takes that job. And then it'll be a question of what charges he faces. Of course, the word terrorism has been used quite a bit. We heard it from the FBI Director who said -- sorry, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, who said that an act of terror was carried out last night.
We heard that, young suspect, Elias Rodriguez, say "Free, free Palestine" which has some people arguing that that is indeed a political message, which means it could be an act of terror. But as you noted, our colleagues have also reported that he could face federal hate crime charges in addition to other federal charges.
In terms of the victims, we have learned more about how they were killed and their life together, and the life that they planned to live together. Yaron Lashinsky was a 30-year-old who was born in Germany. He had German and Israeli citizenship. He wanted to be a diplomat. He worked at the Israeli Embassy in the political section and (inaudible), and it was there that he met Sarah Milgrom, 26-years-old. She is an American citizen who started working at the Embassy just after October 7th. She organized events. She organized trips to Israel for religious groups and political groups and things like researchers going to Israel. And they fell in love.
And it was a love story that was well known to others at the Embassy. They were often seen eating lunch together. It was picture perfect in the words of one Israeli official who told me that they belonged on the poster for a Netflix romcom. They were at this event last night. They left at 9:00 p.m. out of the Jewish Museum. And that's when they encountered Mr. Rodriguez, who shot -- who allegedly shot them dead. There were two other staffers, young American women, from the Israeli embassy who were with them who thankfully were uninjured. Brianna? Boris?
SANCHEZ: Alex Marquardt, thank you. Still to come, laid off workers at the Department of Education can go back to work after a judge blocks the Trump administration's attempt to shut it down.
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