Officials: Fire not contained after crash at Santa Monica Airport

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Santa Monica firefighters monitor the collapsed aircraft hangar where a private jet crashed and burned Sunday evening at Santa Monica Airport. Investigators will have to lift the hangar’s metal roof off the burned aircraft to determine how many bodies are inside. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

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Santa Monica firefighters look through burned debris at the back side of an aircraft hangar where a private jet crashed and burned Sunday evening. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

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Firefighters battle a blaze at Santa Monica Airport that began when a small jet veered off the runway and crashed into a hangar. The fire spread to two other buildings. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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A firefighter works to extinguish a fire in a collapsed airplane hangar at Santa Monica Airport that began when a twin-engine Cessna Citation crashed into it after landing Sunday. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at the site of the plane crash at Santa Monica Airport. (Ringo H.W. Chiu / Associated Press)

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Firefighters work to extinguish fire at the site of the plane crash at Santa Monica Airport on Sunday. (Ringo H.W. Chiu / Associated Press)

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The wing of a plane is visible as firefighters investigate while continuing to extinguish a fire after a twin-engine Cessna Citation crashed into a hangar after landing at Santa Monica Airport. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

By Laura J. Nelson

Sept. 29, 2013 9:31 PM PT

A fire at the Santa Monica Airport that started when a small jet crashed into a hangar Sunday night has spread to two hangars nearby and is burning uncontained, authorities told The Times.

A two-engine Cessna that took off from Hailey, Idaho, landed at the airport around 6:20 p.m., veered off the right side of the runway and struck a storage hangar, authorities said. The jet and the hangar burst into flames during the crash, officials said, and the hangar partially collapsed on top of the jet.

Authorities have not been able to access the wreckage or see the plane’s tail number, sources told The Times; that has made it more difficult to access the plane’s records or know who was onboard.

The Fire Department dispatched six fire engines and four ambulances, but none took victims to the hospital, spokeswoman Bridgett Lewis said. She could not say whether the jet was inside the first hangar at the time it collapsed.

It is unknown how many people were aboard the plane at the time it crashed. Lewis declined to comment on injuries or deaths.

The flames burned at a higher temperature than most fires because jet fuel was involved, Lewis said. The flames then spread to two hangars nearby and caused minor damage.

Advocates for pollution controls near the airport said they were concerned that the fire could spread to homes nearby.

“This is a warning of the potential that this airport has to do harm to the closely surrounding, highly populated neighborhoods,” said Martin Rubin, who directs Concerned Residents Against Airport Pollution.

The Cessna business jet is registered to Creative Real Estate Exchange LLC, a real-estate company based in Alabama and Georgia, according to the firm’s website. The owner of the plane lives in Malibu, according to FAA records.

The plane had made eight flights since Sept. 15, according to flight tracking websites, including four between Hailey and Santa Monica.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash at the scene, officials said.

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