Editor's note: This is a developing story. More details will be added as they become available.
The airport weather instrumentation that pilots rely on to safely land planes has not functioned properly at Montgomery Field Airport since Tuesday, the National Weather Service (NWS) has confirmed with KPBS.
A small Cessna jet crashed into military housing near the San Diego’s Tierrasanta neighborhood in the early morning hours on Thursday, killing two and injuring eight others.
“The Automated Surface Observing Station (ASOS) at Montgomery Field near San Diego, CA stopped consistently transmitting weather observations on the evening of May 20,” said Erica Grow Cei, Public Affairs Specialist and Meteorologist at the NWS, in an email to KPBS. “Montgomery Field has been using nearby Miramar naval air station (KNKX) for observations.”
Montgomery Field is also known as Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport.
The aircraft crashed just before 4 a.m. into the U.S. military's largest housing neighborhood, appearing to strike at least one home that had a charred and collapsed roof and smashing through half a dozen vehicles. About 10 homes suffered damage but no one inside the homes needed transport to the hospital, authorities said.
ASOS “plays a crucial role in aviation safety at various airports,” according to NWS. The systems are supposed to operate “around the clock, updating observations every minute, 24/7, all year long.”
“If the ASOS is unpredictable or not working, then you increase the hazard of operating," said Thomas Anthony, director of the University of Southern California’s Aviation Safety & Security Program. "The hazard is substantially greater, especially when there are low ceilings (from fog)."
City of San Diego spokesperson Tara Lewis initially told KPBS this morning “there were no outages that were reported” for the airport’s weather instrumentation.
In a follow-up statement after this story was originally published, Lewis said:
"The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is responsible for maintaining and operating the Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport’s Automated Surface Observing Station (ASOS). The Airport was not notified of any outages."
Grow Cei said NWS will work with authorities to provide information that will support their investigation into the crash.
