California plane crash: Nasim Ghanadan identified among the five killed
Orange County fire officials report that five are dead after a twin-engine crashed in a Staples parking lot in Santa Ana Sunday.
“No one on the ground was injured,” said Capt. Tony Bommarito of the Orange County Fire Authority.
The crash happened just after 12:30 p.m. local time. Authorities have no other information about the flight at this time, Bommarito said.
photo/ twitter, user @xomissella (cropped)
The 1973 Cessna 414 was registered to Category III Aviation Corp. in San Francisco company and had flown from the San Francisco Bay area suburb of Concord, according to FAA records.
The location of the crash is between the cities of Santa Ana and Costa Mesa, about 40 minutes south of Los Angeles.
The crash site is a little more than a mile away from John Wayne Airport, where the small passenger plane was headed.
“Never in my life did I think I would see a plane fall out of the sky. #SantaAna,” tweeted user @xomissella with a photo of the crumpled plane amidst some palm trees.
“…I don’t know anything about what this pilot did or what he was thinking, but it could have been much more tragic. This is a Sunday afternoon, and we have people shopping, so the fact that there are no injuries on the ground is a miracle in itself,” said Bommarito, speaking with the press.
Family members identified one of the victims as Nasim Ghanadan, 29, who was a realtor from the East Bay and on the flight for work.
The identities of the other victims have not yet been released.
The cause of the incident will be investigated by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Nasim Ghanadan photo/ Facebook
