PHOENIX — A pilot made "a series of erratic maneuvers" before a small plane crashed off the coast of San Diego last month, killing six people, a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report said.
The twin-engine Cessna 414 crashed around 12:30 p.m. on June 8, a few miles west of Point Loma, one of the oldest seaside communities in San Diego. The Joint Operations Center, a joint command center for state and federal maritime operations, received the initial report about 15 minutes after the crash.
The crash killed Jeremy Bingham and his three adult sons — Ayden Bingham, Bailey Bingham, and Gavin Bingham — along with the pilot, Landon Baldwin, and his wife, Torrie Baldwin. The plane had flown to San Diego from Phoenix the day before and headed back to Phoenix when the crash occurred.
Shaffen Woods, a friend of Jeremy Bingham and former football coach of Ayden, previously told The Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network, that the San Diego trip was part of an excursion the Bingham family, from Thatcher, Arizona, often took to create new memories.
The plane took off from San Diego and climbed to 1,600 feet when the air traffic controller instructed Baldwin to make a 180-degree turn to the left, the report said.
