On February 27, a plane bound for San Jose crashed in Riverside, killing three people, including the pilot Nouri Hijazi, his wife Dana, and Adine Ferales, a teacher from Los Gatos. Hajizi’s daughter, Joanne Stacey Pierce, was taken to the hospital, but died over a week later on March 7, just after 9 p.m. Silvia Ferales, Adine’s mother, survived the crash and is currently recovering from her injuries, which includes being ejected from the plane.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed that before takeoff, the plane’s left engine had trouble starting, even after Hijazi completed a thorough inspection of the plane before boarding the plane with the passengers. Multiple witness accounts confirm this. Despite this, there is no suspected cause of the crash yet; a final investigative report can take up to a year and a half to complete.

Video footage of the plane shows the aircraft tilting to the left before crashing behind a Riverside residence. According to Glenn Winn, an aviation instructor at USC, a mechanic should have been called to check the engines. It is unknown if a checkoff was performed before Hijazi started the engines to fly back to San Jose.