Dashcam video captures horrific San Jose highway plane crash

A small plane that crashed on a San Jose highway last Saturday was flying dangerously low and struck a light pole before slamming nose-first into the ground, newly surfaced video shows.

The dashcam of a car waiting at a traffic signal captured the horrific moment when the prop plane, carrying two adults and a child, crashed in the area of Capitol Expressway and Excalibur Dr.

The footage shared by Storyful shows the plane descending at an unusually low altitude and steep angle over San Jose’s Capitol Expressway, and one of its wings struck a street light pole along the road. The wing structure fractured instantly, throwing the plane out of control.

The aircraft then violently pitched forward into a sharp nosedive, crashing nose-first onto the asphalt, the video shows. Photos from the scene showed the mangled plane’s nose crushed and bent against the roadway.

The San Jose Fire Department had taken the three passengers with non-life-threatening injuries to a local hospital after the crash “out of an abundance of caution.”

No vehicles were involved in the crash, which caused a minor fuel spill that was absorbed, authorities said.

​Another plane had crashed while landing last Friday at San Jose’s Reid Hillview Airport because of faulty landing gear.

​“A small plane crash-landed due to faulty landing gear. The two individuals onboard were uninjured and able to get out of the plane on their own. The crash did not result in any fuel spill,” the San Jose Fire Department said on X.

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