A Cessna 172 Skyhawk crashed and burned on a runway at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in San Diego on Monday evening. Two people on board were killed.

San Diego police logged the crash at about 17:20 local time on 7 September. It was the Labor Day holiday, and most of the businesses on the field were shut.

By the time fire crews reached the aircraft there was nothing to be done.

What witnesses described

A resident watching aircraft from the top floor of a nearby parking garage told the Los Angeles Times that the Cessna appeared to tilt to the right as it came in to land, and that a wing struck the ground. He said the front of the aircraft caught fire within seconds of impact, and that he had seen no smoke before it hit.

Two people working in a hangar nearby told FOX 5 San Diego they heard a bang and saw flames take hold of the small four-seater. Both ran towards it carrying fire extinguishers. By their estimate the aircraft was fully engulfed within about ninety seconds.

Raines said there was no risk of the fire spreading beyond the crash site and that a contractor had been called to clear spilled fuel from the runway. He confirmed both occupants had died. Their names have not been released.

Touch-and-goes, and why the phase of flight matters

One of the hangar witnesses, who works at the airport, said the aircraft had appeared to be flying touch-and-goes. Investigators have not confirmed that, and have not said whether the Cessna was landing or taking off when it went down.

A touch-and-go is the backbone of circuit training: land, roll, reconfigure, take off again without stopping, and go round the pattern to do it once more. It compresses the busiest and most demanding parts of a flight into a repeating loop, which is exactly why it is taught and exactly why it leaves so little margin. The aircraft is low, slow, close to the ground and being reconfigured, all at once.

A wing striking the runway during a landing is consistent with a loss of directional or lateral control at low speed, but so are several other sequences, and a witness account from a parking garage is not evidence. The NTSB will work from the wreckage, the engine, the flight controls, radar and radio data, and the pilot’s records. That process takes months.

What circuit touch-and-goes involve in a Cessna 172, from a flight training perspective.

A busy general aviation field in the middle of a city

Montgomery-Gibbs is not a quiet strip. It serves private and corporate flying, charter, air ambulance, law enforcement, fire rescue, flight training and light cargo, from a site surrounded on all sides by Kearny Mesa.

The FAA closed the airport immediately after the crash and gave no timeline for reopening. Raines said that decision would be taken with the NTSB and the airport, depending on what the investigation required.

The Skyhawk is the most-produced aircraft in history and the machine most pilots learn on. That is the uncomfortable part of a day like this one. It is not an exotic aeroplane doing an exotic thing. It is the aircraft in the circuit at almost every training field in the world, on an ordinary Monday evening.

Sources: San Diego Fire-Rescue; San Diego Police Department; AeroTime; FOX 5 San Diego; Los Angeles Times; NBC 7 San Diego; National Transportation Safety Board.