A construction company official says the firm’s CEO Mark Benjamin and his son Luke Benjamin were likely killed in the fiery crash of a jet that slammed into a hangar after landing at a Southern California airport.
The Benjamins were on the twin-engine Cessna Citation that crashed Sunday evening, Morley Construction Vice President Charles Muttillo said on Monday.
Luke Benjamin was a senior project manager at Santa Monica-based Morley Construction, Muttillo said.
Officials called the crash “unsurvivable.”
Cranes had to be brought in to lift the wrecked building off the plane before efforts could begin to retrieve remains and the cockpit voice recorder.
The investigation and release of information were very likely to be slowed by the federal government shutdown that began late Monday for the West Coast.
Investigators were to gather all evidence that could not be preserved from the active accident scene and then stop their work, NTSB spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said shortly before the shutdown went into effect.
There would be no news conferences or other public communications, Nantel said, as the federal agency focuses solely on identifying major safety issues.
The pilot never called in any problem during the flight.
“There was no communication with the pilot indicting there’s a problem with the aircraft at any time during the flight,” Van McKenny, lead investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a Monday afternoon press conference.
The plane crashed into a row of five connected hangars about 400 feet from the end of the 5,000-foot runway, where it caught fire.
One hangar collapsed, its steel trusses crossing over the plane and the sheet metal shell wrapping around it, McKenny said. Two other hangars received minor damage. Officials don’t believe anyone was inside the hangar that collapsed when it was impacted.
The plane could have held up to 10 people; four bodies were found on Tuesday, and officials are working on identifying them. McKenny said that officials don’t think there was a flight manifest, and are looking into who else may have been on board.
The jet was coming from Hailey, Idaho, Sunday evening and veered off the Santa Monica runway. It is not clear what caused the plane to veer into the hangar, McKenny said.
A plume of smoke rising above the airport could be seen in the twilight sky over the neighborhoods surrounding the airport in the hours after the crash.
After hearing a loud boom, several neighbors ran toward the airport and saw the fire.
“It was very, very terrifying, it was sad to see just so much smoke, and the building collapse and the loud boom, you just put it all together and it’s scary,” witness Alyssa Lang told KABC-TV.
Witness Charles Thomson told the TV station the plane appeared to make a “perfectly normal landing” before veering off course.
Photos and footage of the scene show all but the tail of the plane trapped under a collapsed section of the small building.
Morley Construction was founded by Morley Benjamin in the late 1940s, and was re-named the Morley Construction Company during the 1950s.
Mark Benjamin was Morley’s son. He started as an apprentice carpenter shortly after 1970, according to the company’s website. The website is offline on Monday afternoon, possibly from heavy traffic following the news of the deaths, or because the company took it offline.
Mark Benjamin spent time in the Sun Valley area of Idaho since his youth and served on the board of directors of the Idaho Conservation League, according to the executive director of the organization, Rick Johnson. He described Benjamin as “an extraordinary, thoughtful businessperson who brought a lot of passion and energy to our organization.”
Johnson said that Benjamin typically piloted a plane between the two states, though he did not know who was the pilot on Sunday’s flight.
Mark and Luke will be missed.
“Morley Benjamin set a standard of philanthropy on the Westside that has been valued for decades. His son Mark continued that tradition,” said Mrs. Abbot Kinney via Twitter.
“No no no Mark & Luke Benjamin?? This is a huge loss to the family and the communities of Malibu and Santa Monica - and beyond,” said Karen Farrer via Facebook. “Oh I am so bummed. They did SO much for so many for so long. May they rest in peace.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
