The crash happened at 3:45 in the morning, when Murphy Canyon was quiet. The Cessna Citation II had departed Teterboro Airport in New Jersey the night of May 21, crossing the country on a transcontinental flight with Dave Shapiro at the controls.

Shapiro was the co-founder of Sound Talent Group, a booking agency that represented hundreds of artists across rock, metal, and alternative music. He was also a pilot — someone who, by accounts of those who knew him, treated aviation as a passion, not just a convenience. On the night of May 21, he was bringing a group of colleagues and friends home to Southern California.

The approach to Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport, where the flight was headed, crossed over hills and neighborhoods in conditions that would have required careful navigation. The weather that morning included fog and visibility reduced to half a mile. The instruments that feed pilots critical weather data at Montgomery-Gibbs had been disrupted — a power surge had knocked out weather reporting systems at the airport.

All six aboard were killed. Dave Shapiro was among them, along with Emma Huke, Kendall Fortner, Celina Kenyon, and Dominic Damian. Also aboard was Daniel Williams, a drummer known for his years with the metalcore band The Devil Wears Prada.

The crash left a wide hole in the music world. Sound Talent Group represented hundreds of touring acts, and Shapiro had spent years building relationships across the industry. Williams was mourned by a devoted fanbase and by fellow musicians who had come up alongside him in a scene defined by relentless touring and personal connection.

For their families, the loss was not about industry or reputation but about the particular people they were: a brother, a partner, a son, a friend who was supposed to come home.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board began examining the circumstances of the crash. The combination of factors was troubling: reduced visibility due to fog, half-mile visibility at the time of the crash, and the failure of weather reporting systems at Montgomery-Gibbs that had been disrupted by a power surge.

Pilots rely on real-time weather data to make approach decisions, especially at night and in low-visibility conditions. When that data is unavailable or inaccurate, the margin for error narrows. Whether the missing weather data played a direct role in the approach decisions that night was part of what investigators sought to determine.

The Murphy Canyon neighborhood is relatively close to Montgomery-Gibbs — close enough that a flight that was nearly home still had terrain and neighborhood below it on final approach.

Murphy Canyon is a residential area northeast of downtown San Diego, surrounded by hills and sitting beneath the approach paths of several local airports. The crash affected not only the people aboard the aircraft but the neighborhood below — homes and structures were damaged on the ground.

The 2025 crash joined a longer history of aviation accidents associated with Montgomery-Gibbs and the corridors into San Diego. Small and mid-size airports operating near populated areas carry inherent tensions between the communities they serve and the risks that come with aircraft flying low over neighborhoods, especially in difficult weather.

Six people set out from New Jersey on the evening of May 21, 2025, headed west. They did not arrive.