On Friday, a small plane used to drop off skydivers crashed in Oceanside, California. The plane nose-dived towards the ground while attempting to land and crashed on Foussat Road and State Route 76, just short of Oceanside Municipal Airport.
The Oceanside Fire Department responded to the accident which was reported around 1:50 p.m. on Friday. At the crash site, they discovered the two pilots, a man and a woman, trapped inside the aircraft and in critical condition.
"It was flying extremely low," witness Graham Jones-Kellett said. "That’s when we knew it was probably going to crash."
The woman died shortly after the crash. The man is currently in critical condition.
A nurse and her daughter who happened to be in traffic near the crash site helped the two injured pilots while firefighters rescued them from the wreck. Their identities have not been released, but it has been reported that both were licensed pilots who were flying a single-engine Cessna 208B.
The aircraft involved in the accident belongs to the company GoJump America, a skydiving company located in Oceanside. GoJump said that they had leased the aircraft and that the two individuals involved in the crash are not employed by the company.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the pilot who has passed away. All of us in GoJump are very saddened by what has happened," the skydiving company GoJump said in a statement.
Another plane belonging to the skydiving company GoJump also crashed in February. Two men were on board when the plane crashed near the runway of the Oceanside Municipal Airport at around 1 p.m. on February 24. That plane, a Cessna Caravan, also nose-dived.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating Friday’s crash.