A pilot and passenger died Thursday after their small plane crashed onto the driveway of a home in Santee, while no one on the ground was hurt, authorities said.

The plane appeared to have lost power on takeoff, turned south and clipped at least one house before hitting the ground, said Jan Caldwell, spokeswoman for the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. It came to a stop upside down and collided with two parked vehicles, she said.

The single-engine Piper PA-28 Cherokee was from Golden State Flying Club, a flight training school based out of Gillespie Field, school officials confirmed Thursday night.

The aircraft came down about 9:15 a.m. and landed in a driveway and front yards between two houses on Corte De La Donna, a small residential cul-de-sac off Paseo de los Castillos. The street is a few blocks west of Gillespie, and lies beneath the general aviation airport’s takeoff flight path.


The plane caught fire after the impact, but bystanders quickly extinguished the flames, Santee fire Division Chief Richard Smith said.

One of the two men on board was found dead in the wreckage, and firefighters worked for nearly half an hour to get the other man out. He was unconscious, and later died at a trauma center, Smith said.

Two vehicles in the driveway and the roof of the next-door house were damaged, Smith said.

“It was unfortunate for the two men on the plane – we feel for their families – but we’re happy that no one else was hurt,” Smith said. The men’s names were not released.


The plane is registered to Volar Corp. in El Cajon, which operates Golden State Flying Club. An employee said Thursday night that he could not comment beyond the school’s statement because of the ongoing investigation. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.

“We at Golden State Flying Club are very saddened by the tragic accident involving one of our aircraft this morning,” the statement said. “Our hearts go out to those on board and their families. At this time the NTSB, FAA and law enforcement are investigating, and we’ll learn more when the facts begin to become available.”

The wreckage was loaded onto a flatbed truck for transport to Arizona for the investigation.

Neighbors look over a small aircraft that crashed into driveway of a home in Santee on Corte De La Donna. The aircraft struck the roof top, and a 4-door sedan before crashing on the driveway of one of the homes in the small cul de sac. (Nelvin C. Cepeda)


A man who watched the activities by fire, sheriff’s and hazardous materials crews from a distance said his wife’s sister lives in the house where the plane landed. He spoke with her on the phone and said that she was on the living room sofa when the plane hit yards away, and her husband was sleeping.

“They’re not normally home during the day, but they were both off today,” he said, declining to provide his name. “They thought the noise was their neighbor starting up his Harley. They looked outside and saw the fire.”

He said the two grabbed fire extinguishers, put out the flames, then saw one body in the wreckage. He said their pickup and SUV were heavily damaged by the plane.

Hazardous materials crews later siphoned the fuel from the plane’s tanks in the wings as a precaution, Smith said.


Local residents said they have been almost expecting an air crash out of Gillespie Field because of the way student pilots from a host of flying schools fail to observe flight patterns.

Cary Nichols, who lives on a nearby hilltop street, Altozano Drive, said that in recent days he had noticed flights by the same Piper, with the same identifying tail number, that crashed on Thursday.

“It caught my eye because he was flying very, very fast and very low for the past three days,” Nichols said. “We get this all the time – it was just a matter of time before this happens.”

He said he is part of a large neighborhood committee that has filed complaints about the flying schools to the county, which owns Gillespie Field, and to the FAA. Nichols said each morning, around 7 a.m., “a bunch of them all take off and do touch-and-gos” without following the designated flight patterns over state Route 125, Grossmont College and a nearby canyon.


Janet Chenowth, who has lived on nearby Pryor Drive for 18 years, says she too has filed complaints that the student pilots cut their engines, as part of the training process, while flying over homes and schools.

“They cut their engines, and they fly low,” she said. “I’ve been expecting them to hit a school.”