SAN DIEGO (AP) — A private jet carrying a music talent agent and five others hit a power line in foggy weather early Thursday and crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, slamming into a home and killing multiple people on the flight.

With the home engulfed in flames and jet fuel rolling down the streets, half a dozen vehicles ignited while residents in the neighborhood of U.S. Navy-owned housing were shaken awake just before 4 a.m. by the thunderous crash and subsequent explosions. Out their windows, they saw a wall of fire.

“I can’t quite put words to describe what the scene looks like, but with the jet fuel going down the street, and everything on fire all at once, it was pretty horrific to see,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said.

No one in the neighborhood died, but eight were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and injuries that were not life-threatening, including a person who was hurt climbing out a window, police officer Anthony Carrasco said.

Dave Shapiro, co-founder of Sound Talent Group, and two employees were among those killed, the music agency said in a statement. Sound Talent Group has represented artists including American pop band Hanson, American singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton and the Canadian rock group Sum 41. Hanson is perhaps best known for its earworm 1990s pop hit, “MMMBop.” Shapiro also owned Velocity Records.

“We are devastated by the loss of our co-founder, colleagues and friends. Our hearts go out to their families and to everyone impacted by today’s tragedy,” the agency said.

Six people were on board the plane, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Authorities were still combing the scene and recovering the bodies before releasing an official number and identifying the dead, though there were not believed to be any survivors aboard the flight.

Daniel Williams, former drummer for metal band The Devil Wears Prada, posted on his Instagram on Wednesday afternoon that he was boarding the plane with Shapiro. The band posted a tribute to Williams on their Instagram page.

“No words. We owe you everything. Love you forever,” the band wrote.

A representative for the band referred to their social post when asked about Williams’ death.

Parts of Shapiro’s 1985 Cessna 550 Citation littered a large area, including fragments under the power lines and a section of wing on a road behind the homes, said Elliot Simpson of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Neighborhood hit hard

The home that was struck was destroyed, with its front heavily burned and its roof partially collapsed, and about 10 others were damaged in Murphy Canyon, the largest neighborhood of Navy-owned housing in the country, officials said.

Ben McCarty and his wife, who live in the home that was hit, said they felt heat all around them.

“My wife was screaming, and she’s like, ‘There’s a fire,’” McCarty, who has served in the Navy for 13 years, told local ABC affiliate KGTV.

When he walked toward the front of the house, he saw that the roof had fallen off and flames blocked their exit. They grabbed their children and dogs and ran to the back, where their neighbors helped them climb over the fence to escape.

The plane also hit both of the couple’s vehicles, which burned.

“It put my truck into our living room,” McCarty said.

Other vehicles along the block were melted and scorched into burned shells. One stubborn car fire sent smoke billowing up for hours.

Ariya Waterworth said she woke up to a “whooshing sound” and then saw a giant fireball outside. She screamed for help as firefighters arrived and helped her get out with her two children and their family dog.

One of the family’s cars was “completely disintegrated,” and the other had extensive damage. Her yard was littered with plane parts, broken glass and debris.

“I definitely do feel blessed, because we’ve been spared,” she said.

At least 100 residents were evacuated. Hours after the crash, jet fuel rolled down Salmon Street. The smell of fumes lingered throughout the day, and officials said it was unclear when it would be safe for people to return.

“We have jet fuel all over the place,” Assistant San Diego Fire Department Chief Dan Eddy said.

Eddy added that the fog was so thick in the morning that “you could barely see in front of you.”

The plane originated from a small New Jersey airport

The flight took off from Teterboro, New Jersey, near Manhattan, at about 11:15 p.m. Wednesday and made a fuel stop in Wichita, Kansas, before continuing on to San Diego, according to Simpson.

Based on the flight path, it was bound for Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport when it struck power lines about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) southeast of the airfield, Simpson said.

Audio recorded by www.liveATC.net includes a brief transmission from the pilot saying he was on final approach to the airport and was about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) out at 3:45 a.m.

NTSB investigators planned to spend Thursday and Friday at the scene gathering evidence, Simpson said. He welcomed video or other details from any witnesses.

The plane was attempting to land in foggy weather

At that hour and in foggy weather, the plane was likely operating on an instrument flight rules plan, which is typically used during reduced visibility, said Barry Newman, a board-certified aviation attorney.

However, for that airport, once an aircraft reaches 673 feet (205 meters), the pilot also has to rely on sight.

“If a pilot descends to that level and he can’t see the runway, he has to call for a missed approach or divert to another airport,” Newman said.

In October 2021 a twin-engine plane plowed into a San Diego suburb, killing the pilot and a UPS delivery driver on the ground and burning homes. It was preparing to land at the airport.

And in December 2008, a Marine Corps fighter jet slammed into a house in San Diego’s University City neighborhood, causing an explosion that killed four people inside. The Marine Corps blamed the crash on mechanical failure and human error.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — OpenAI has recruited Jony Ive, the designer behind Apple’s iPhone, to lead a new hardware project for the artificial intelligence company that makes ChatGPT.

OpenAI said it is acquiring io Products, a product and engineering company co-founded by Ive, in a deal valued at nearly $6.5 billion.

Ive became renowned for a meticulous design aesthetic that shaped the cultural zeitgeist during a 27-year career at Apple, which he left in 2019. He did his most influential work after Apple co-founder Steve Jobs returned to run the company in 1997, where the two forged a partnership that would hatch a succession of game-changing products like the iPhone.

The new OpenAI deal now thrusts Ive at the vanguard of AI — a technology driving the biggest industry shift since the iPhone’s arrival.

The company hasn’t said exactly what product they will be making but expect “physical AI embodiments” that bring generative AI chatbot technology out of computer screens into another form, such as through a car, humanoid robot or the AI-powered glasses being developed by competitors Google and Meta, said Gartner analyst Chirag Dekate, adding that it is too early to know for sure.

OpenAI said its CEO Sam Altman had been “quietly” collaborating since 2023 with Ive and his design firm, LoveFrom.

In a joint letter posted on OpenAI’s website Wednesday, Ive and Altman said it “became clear that our ambitions to develop, engineer and manufacture a new family of products demanded an entirely new company.”

That’s when Ive co-founded io, which was incorporated in Delaware in September 2023 and registered in California in April 2024, according to state records. OpenAI said it already owns a 23% stake in io from a prior collaborative agreement signed late last year. It says it will now pay $5 billion in equity for the acquisition.

OpenAI said Ive will not become an OpenAI employee and LoveFrom will remain independent but “will assume deep design and creative responsibilities across OpenAI and io.” Both OpenAI and Ive’s design firm are based in San Francisco.

Leading the new io division for OpenAI will be longtime executive Peter Welinder, who led robotics research in the startup’s early years and more recently has been vice president of its “new product explorations” team that delves into hardware, robotics and other early stage research.

Altman, 40, can only hope his still-blossoming partnership with the 58-year-old designer, works out as well as the mind-meld between Jobs and Ive.

When he started his own firm, Ive derived the LoveFrom name from Jobs’ observation that one way to hail humanity is by “making something with a great deal of care and love.”

Ive also chose to base LoveForm in a historic part of San Francisco, located just near bars and cafes that were once frequented by such Beat Generation luminaries as “On The Road” author Jack Kerouac and “Howl” author Allen Ginsberg.

OpenAI is headquartered about two miles away. Founded nearly a decade ago as a nonprofit research laboratory dedicated to safely building better-than-human AI for humanity’s benefit, it remains controlled by a nonprofit board of directors even as Altman, its co-founder, has increasingly pushed it toward commercializing ChatGPT and its other inventions. It’s not clear if Altman’s collaboration with Ive began before or after Altman’s short-lived ouster in November 2023, months after io’s Delaware incorporation but before the new business was set up in San Francisco.

Altman earlier this month said OpenAI was abandoning plans to drop its nonprofit governance structure but is pursuing a plan to make changes that would make it easier to access capital and pursue mergers and acquisitions “and other normal things companies would do.”