Coroner Releases Names of San Diego Plane Crash Victims as Investigation Continues

A music executive, two employees, a photographer, and a software engineer were confirmed as five of the six people aboard.

Firefighters check a residential street where several parked cars were burned when a small plane crashed on May 22, 2025. Jane Yang/The Epoch Times

The San Diego County coroner has officially released the names of five of the six people who were killed when a plane crashed into military housing in San Diego on May 22, confirming the deaths of a music-industry executive, two employees, and others.

The crash ignited cars parked along a neighborhood block and damaged several homes in the U.S. military’s largest housing neighborhood.

Five people from a single family were hospitalized for smoke inhalation following the crash, and another person was treated at a hospital for injuries sustained while climbing out of a window trying to flee, said San Diego police.

According to the San Diego medical examiner, those who died were located by rescue personnel after their private jet crashed on the 10200 block of Sample Street.

David Shapiro, 42; Emma Huke, 25; and Celina Marie Rose Kenyon, 36, died of multiple blunt force injuries, according to the coroner.

The medical examiner’s office is still investigating what caused the death of Dominic Christopher Damian, 41, and Kendall Fortner, 24, who were also traveling in the private jet when it crashed, according to the information released.

Shapiro had been identified by his company, Sound Talent Group, as its cofounder. Fortner and Huke were two of his employees, the music agency said in a statement. Damian was a software engineer, according to his Linkedin page, and Kenyon was a photographer.

Fortner and Huke had recently joined Shapiro’s agency as booking associates after graduating college, according to bios released by Sound Talent Group.

“We are devastated by the loss of our cofounder, colleagues and friends,” the company wrote in the statement. “Our hearts go out to their families and to everyone impacted by [the] tragedy.”

Shapiro also owned Velocity Records. He had a pilot’s license and was listed as the owner of the plane.

Another passenger on the flight was allegedly Daniel Williams, although the sixth person has not been officially identified. Williams, a former drummer for metal band The Devil Wears Prada, posted on his Instagram before the flight that he was boarding a plane with Shapiro.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is leading an investigation into the crash.

Police officers search the site where a small plane crashed on a San Diego, California, residential street on May 22, 2025. Photo by Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images

The flight took off from Teterboro, New Jersey, near Manhattan, at about 11:15 p.m. Wednesday and stopped for fuel in Kansas before continuing to San Diego, according to Elliot Simpson of the NTSB.

The plane was arriving at about 3:45 a.m. at the Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport, a busy general aviation airport for private aircraft.

As the pilot approached the runway for an instrument-guided landing, the Cessna Citation hit high-tension power lines about two miles southeast of the airfield, according to the NTSB.

“After impacting the high-tension power lines, the airplane descended and impacted the ground in a residential area,” Dan Baker, senior air safety investigator for the NTSB assigned to the region, told reporters during a press conference May 23.

Investigators look through the site where a small plane crashed on a San Diego, California, residential street on May 22, 2025. Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images

After coming to a rest on Sample Street, the aircraft burst into flames that destroyed it and damaged nearby vehicles and homes, according to Baker.

“The pilot and passengers were fatally injured,” Baker said, but there were no ground fatalities or serious injuries to people nearby.

Initial findings revealed the pilot was attempting to land while the runway lighting systems were out of service, according to investigators.

Additionally, the airport’s Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS), which provides essential weather data specific to the location, was not working because of an unrelated glitch related to a power surge in the area, Baker reported.

The area was experiencing thick fog, but the wind was calm with a half-mile of visibility, investigators said.

The pilot communicated with air traffic controllers to get weather information for a location four miles away before descending, he added.

The pilot did not report any problems to air traffic control and did not declare an emergency during the landing, according to the NTSB.

The aircraft was not equipped with a flight data recorder, and investigators were still trying to determine if the plane had a cockpit voice recorder.

The agency is required to file a preliminary report 30 days after the accident and expects to finalize a report within 12 to 24 months, Baker said.