San Diego airport experienced glitches before fatal plane crash

Investigators are examining whether foggy conditions and technical glitches at a San Diego airport that cut off lights meant to guide pilots may have played a role in a fatal plane crash.

A Cessna 550 crashed early Thursday into a residential neighbourhood, burning cars and destroying at least one home.

Authorities say all six aboard are presumed dead, including a former drummer for the rock band The Devil Wears Prada and a high-profile music agent.

The National Transportation Safety Board is examining a mix of clues and said the aircraft did not have a flight data recorder, which would have provided more information. Officials have not yet determined what factors led to the crash.

In a news conference on Friday, NTSB investigator Dan Baker said the agency is receiving help from the FBI as it works to collect and preserve evidence from the scene.

He said investigators have found the plane had struck high-tension power lines before crashing into homes in the Murphy Canyon neighbourhood, about two miles from the Montgomery Field Airport - where the plane was heading.

The airport, a small regional airport with three runways, was experiencing two separate issues at the time of the crash, Mr Baker said. The Automated Surface Observing Station, which provides weather data to pilots, was "inoperative at the time of the accident due to an unrelated power surge".

At the time, foggy conditions had been reported throughout the area.

Mr Baker attributed the outage to "some sort of technical glitch", but cautioned that it is unclear whether this contributed to the crash since not all airports are equipped with this system.

The airport also had filed a notice to pilots called a Notam, informing them that one of the runways had experienced an issue with the lighting system that guides landing planes.

The pilot of the downed plane had been aiming for that runway when the crash occurred, Mr Baker said.

The pilot did not report any issues to air control and never declared an emergency, Mr Baker said.

The Cessna was not equipped with a flight data recorder, and officials are investigating whether it may have had a cockpit voice recorder onboard.

The crash happened around 3:45 local time (10:45 GMT) and about 100 people had to be evacuated from the neighbourhood, which is just northeast of the city of San Diego.

Eight people on the ground were injured, including one who was taken to hospital.

A preliminary report from the NTSB is expected to be released within 30 days, with a final report in the next 12 to 24 months.