Small Jet Crashes in Santa Monica Hangar

A small business jet landing at Santa Monica Airport in California crashed and swerved off the runway and struck a nearby hangar, according to Reuters.

Firefighters were still contending hours later with the smoldering ruins of the building and the plane at Santa Monica Municipal Airport, and had yet to determine how many people were inside the jet that can hold eight passengers and two crew members, but it was unlikely anyone was alive inside.

"This was an unsurvivable crash," Santa Monica Fire Department Capt. John Nevandro said at a media briefing at the airport. The twin-engine Cessna Citation, which departed from Hailey, Idaho, went off the right side of the runway after landing at the airport at 6:20 p.m. local time, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.

There was no information on the number of people aboard the aircraft or their conditions, Gregor said. He could not confirm a tail number identifying the aircraft. The Cessna Citation family of jets has a seating capacity for between five and nine people. Calls to the Santa Monica Fire Department, the primary responder to the crash scene, were not immediately returned late on Sunday. News pictures taken shortly after the crash showed billowing black smoke curling up over aircraft at the airport, which serves communities west of downtown Los Angeles.

Subsequent images showed the tail of an aircraft protruding from the partly collapsed hangar, flanked by fire trucks. A source close to the investigation, who asked not to be identified, said the collapsed hangar prevented fire officials from accessing the wreckage. The National Transportation Safety Board would take over the investigation as is routine in such crashes.