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A preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report released today on a Southern California plane crash earlier this month that killed all five people aboard an aircraft that departed from Concord described the minutes before the crash but did not indicate a possible cause.
The Aug. 5 crash in Santa Ana killed Scott Shepherd, 53, and Lara Shepherd, 42, both of Diablo, Floria Hakimi, 62, of Danville, Navid Hakimi, 32, of Los Angeles, and Nasim Ghanadan, 29, of Alamo.
Floria Hakimi, Lara Shepherd and Nasim Ghanadan were all Realtors at the Danville office of Pacific Union International. Scott Shepherd was Lara’s husband and the pilot of the plane, while Navid Hakimi was Floria’s son. The group was headed to a real estate conference in Anaheim.
According to the NTSB report, the flight of the Cessna 414 plane departed Buchanan Field Airport in Concord at 10:22 a.m. and was headed for John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana.
A review of audio tape at the airport in Santa Ana revealed that Scott Shepherd established contact with the airport control tower when he was west of the airport and he was told to hold over the South Coast Plaza shopping center, the report states.
Multiple witnesses near the crash site said they saw the airplane enter a left bank turn and then descend toward the ground at a steep angle.
During the descent, the pilot transmitted “emergency” three times, then crashed into several vehicles in a shopping mall parking lot and came to rest upright about 35 feet from the entrance of a store, according to the report.
The report did not state a possible cause, noting there was good weather and visibility in the area. All major components of the plane were located along the 150-foot-long debris path at the crash site.
The airplane wreckage has been taken to a secure storage facility for further examination.
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