The runway lights were out, a weather alert system wasn’t working and there was heavy fog at a San Diego airport when a pilot who had flown across the country made the decision to proceed with landing but came up short and crashed into a neighborhood.

In the stillness of night, a quiet, tree-lined street in a San Diego neighborhood was plunged into chaos when a plane clipped a power line and crashed – turning cars into fireballs and sending residents fleeing in a haze of smoke and confusion.