2 dead, 19 injured after small plane collides with warehouse in Southern California
Tragedy struck in Fullerton on January 2, 2025, after a small plane plummeted into a commercial warehouse moments after takeoff. A father and his teenage daughter aboard the aircraft were killed, and 19 people inside the building were hurt. The single-engine plane went down barely 1,000 feet from the runway it had just left at Fullerton Municipal Airport, an accident that rattled the surrounding community and reignited questions about the safety of amateur-built aircraft.
Authorities confirmed that the crash killed both people on board and injured 19 others on the ground. The aircraft was a Van’s RV-10, a popular four-seat kit plane that owners build themselves from a manufacturer’s kit before the Federal Aviation Administration inspects it and clears it for flight. This one, registration N8757R, was assembled in 2011 from parts shipped to its builder between 2007 and 2008. It slammed into the roof of a furniture-manufacturing plant operated by Michael Nicholas Designs on Raymer Avenue, igniting a fire that tore through the building.
The two people killed aboard the plane were later identified as the pilot and builder of the aircraft, Pascal Reid of Huntington Beach, and his 16-year-old daughter, Kelly Reid. Kelly was a junior at Huntington Beach High School who played varsity soccer, lacrosse and flag football; her soccer team remembered her as genuine and kind, with a deep passion for life. Of the 19 people hurt on the ground inside the furniture plant, 8 suffered serious injuries and 11 were treated for minor ones, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
The NTSB took charge of the investigation, and its preliminary report, released on January 30, 2025, focused heavily on the aircraft’s left-side door. The RV-10 uses upward-opening gull-wing doors, and investigators determined the left door was not properly secured. Security camera footage showed it in the down position but not flush with the fuselage as the plane taxied and took off. An acquaintance of Reid’s who watched the departure told investigators that once the plane was airborne he saw the door open and up, and saw an arm reach up to pull it back down.
The report also detailed a series of modifications Reid had made to the door-locking system. He had swapped the kit’s aluminum locking pins for solid steel ones and replaced the door blocks with chamfered aluminum, while the secondary safety latch was never installed. Crucially, the door-ajar warning system had been altered: of the four magnetic reed switches the kit included to light a warning lamp when a door was not fully shut, investigators found only two appeared to have been fitted. A retrofit kit recommended for the door assembly had been sent to Reid back in 2010.
Just after lifting off from Runway 24 and climbing to roughly 900 feet, Reid radioed that an immediate landing was required. The tower cleared him to land on any runway, and he indicated he would try for Runway 24. The aircraft completed a 180-degree left turn onto the downwind leg, but other pilots watching from the airport described it flying lower than normal and banking aggressively to the left. Several feared it was about to stall as the wings rolled to an alarming angle; the plane then rolled right, dropped its nose and dove into the warehouse roughly 1,000 feet short of the runway, erupting into a fireball. Notably, investigators found no signs of engine trouble — the wreckage showed the propeller turning under power, and a nearby camera captured normal engine sounds in the final second of flight.
First responders reached the densely built commercial corridor within minutes. The Fullerton Fire Department, FAA, NTSB and local police converged on the site, evacuating the injured to area hospitals while crews fought the blaze and shored up the damaged structure. Officials urged residents and workers near the scene to stay clear of scattered debris as the recovery and investigation got underway.
The crash renewed a long-running debate over experimental amateur-built aircraft, which are constructed and maintained by their owners rather than a certified manufacturer. The Van’s RV-10 is one of the most widely flown kit planes in the country, with roughly 1,100 of the model in service among the some 11,000 Van’s aircraft flying nationwide. Aviation safety advocates have long stressed that builder-installed safety systems and proper latching are only as reliable as the construction behind them, and that meticulous inspection and pilot proficiency are essential on owner-built machines.
The NTSB’s full investigation, including a final report establishing a probable cause, typically takes 12 to 18 months to complete. As the agency continues piecing together the sequence that sent the RV-10 into the warehouse, the Fullerton community is left grappling with the loss of a father and daughter and the wounds inflicted on the workers below. For the broader general-aviation world, the accident stands as a stark reminder of how a single unsecured door can cascade into catastrophe.
