It was loud. It was fiery. And in just seconds, six lives were gone.
A private jet—yes, the kind you imagine rockstars and tech bros flying in—crashed in San Diego’s Murphy Canyon just after midnight on Thursday. It tore through fog, slammed into power lines, and exploded into a fireball that rocked a quiet military neighborhood.
The Cessna Citation II was on final approach to Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport. It didn’t make it.
Everyone on board was killed.
Among the victims? Music industry heavyweight Dave Shapiro—co-founder of Sound Talent Group and agent to heavy metal legends. Also on board was ex-drummer Daniel Williams of The Devil Wears Prada. You know, the metalcore band your older cousin probably moshed to in high school. Williams had recently traded drumsticks for code, working as a software engineer at Apple. Life pivoted hard. Then, tragically, it stopped.
Before takeoff, Williams posted cockpit pics to Instagram. Hours later, that very cockpit was a mangled heap of metal.
It looks like Daniel Williams, former drummer for The Devil Wears Prada, was on board the plane that crashed in San Diego this morning. Absolutely heartbreaking. pic.twitter.com/Roc5zx78rE
— Cody Hanlon (@CodyLNG) May 22, 2025
Locals woke up to smoke, sirens, and confusion. “It felt like a bomb went off,” one resident told The Sun. The crash scorched one home to the ground and damaged ten others. Miraculously, nobody on the ground was killed—though at least eight people were treated for smoke inhalation and other minor injuries.
The plane was registered to Daviator LLC. (Yep, that name sounds like it came straight out of Top Gun: The Startup Edition.) FAA and NTSB are digging through the rubble, looking into weather equipment glitches and that thick, horror-movie fog.
Early reports say visibility was garbage. Combine that with possibly faulty tech and… well, you get this tragic outcome.
The music world is shaken. The tech community too. Murphy Canyon residents are still reeling.
No, this wasn’t some Hollywood set. But it sure felt like one.