Multiple aircraft catastrophes have taken place in January 2025 around the United States. Just weeks before the American Airlines collision with a Black Hawk near Washington D.C. and a separate medical transport jet crash in Philadelphia, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) identified the cause behind a plane crash that took place in Fullerton, California, in earlier January.
Learn more about the Fullerton, California plane crash below.
Where Did the Plane Crash in California?
The small plane crashed into a furniture warehouse near the airport in Fullerton, California.
Were There Survivors in the Fullerton, California, Plane Crash?
No. Unfortunately, a Huntington Beach, California, father-daughter duo died in the home-built airplane crash near Fullerton.
How Did the Fullerton, California, Plane Crash Happen?
According to a preliminary report from the NTSB, the crash resulted from a faulty door.
“Once the airplane had departed the runway environment … he realized its left door was open and up,” the NTSB’s report read, according to the Los Angeles Times. “He saw an arm reach up and pull the door down. By this time the airplane was far enough away that he could no longer discern what was happening, and he assumed the pilot was able to rectify the situation.”
Nearby pilots who witnessed the plane noted that it was “flying lower than normal and banking aggressively left as it made the transition from downwind to base,” the NTSB revealed. “Three then saw the airplane roll aggressively again to the left for what they assumed was a turn to final, all stating that they could almost see the full wing profile, and were concerned it may stall. The airplane then rolled right as its nose dropped, and dove toward the warehouse, where it collided in a fireball”
“Examination of the airplane wreckage revealed that the pilot had made a series of modifications to the standard door-locking system, including the use of solid steel locking pins rather than the kit-supplied aluminum pins, along with replacement of the UHMW polythene door blocks with chamfered aluminum blocks,” the NTSB added in its report. “Additionally, the secondary safety latch had not been installed, and the door latch indicator system had been modified.”
The NTSB also noted that the pilot’s plane apparently only had two reed switches installed, “with each mounted to the aft pillars of both doors.’ LED warning lights were designed to indicate if a door wasn’t completely shut, which wasn’t the case on this plane.
“As such, the modified system would not have warned the pilot if the forward latch pins had failed to fully engage,” the NTSB explained.
How Many Plane Crashes Have There Been in 2025?
There have been multiple reported plane crashes in the U.S. in total so far in 2025. Most of them happened in January, including the collision between a Black Hawk and an American Airlines flight near Washington D.C., a medical transport jet in Northeast Philadelphia and the Fullerton, California, plane.
