Daniel Williams, a former drummer for the Christian metalcore band The Devil Wears Prada, was killed in a plane crash in San Diego this week. He was reportedly aboard a Cessna jet that struck power lines and crashed into a residential neighborhood near Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport, killing all six people on board.
Williams, 39, posted photos to his Instagram story showing the plane and himself in the co-pilot’s seat just hours before takeoff on Thursday. The flight departed from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, stopped in Wichita, Kansas, and then continued West.
One of the photos was captioned, “Here we goooooo.”
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Dave Shapiro, a music agent and licensed pilot who co-founded Sound Talent Group, was also aboard and confirmed dead, according to the company.
The Cessna 550 struck homes and vehicles around 3:45 a.m. local time, dumping jet fuel, igniting fires and injuring eight people on the ground, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Ten homes were damaged in the crash.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident.
Dan Baker, an NTSB investigator, said Friday that the airport’s automated weather reporting system was not functioning at the time of the crash, according to The New York Times. Runway approach lights were also out of service, according to an official notice issued to pilots, said the newspaper.
These factors might have contributed to the difficulty of landing in dense fog, although it is still unclear who was piloting the aircraft.
The victims have not yet been officially named by authorities, but tributes have poured in from across the rock and metal music scenes mourning the loss of Williams and Shapiro.
Sound Talent Group announced Shapiro’s death, and The Devil Wears Prada posted a tribute to Williams on Instagram with a photo of him drumming and the caption, “No words. We owe you everything. Love you forever.”
Williams was one of the founding members of The Devil Wears Prada, which began in Dayton, Ohio, in 2005. Known for combining aggressive metalcore sound with Christian themes, the band rose to prominence with multiple album releases and tours, including headlining the Vans Warped Tour in 2011.
In interviews, Williams described the group as loud and metal, stating that while they were considered a Christian band, they didn’t aim to fit any label or trend.
He left the band in 2016. According to his LinkedIn profile, Williams later worked as a software architect at GoPro and launched an app focused on yoga. He was also a survivor of the 2019 Dayton mass shooting, where nine people were killed in the city’s Oregon District.
Shapiro, 42, began his music career as a drummer in the band Count the Stars before transitioning into artist management and talent representation. Originally from near Albany, New York, Shapiro moved to San Diego, where he built a career booking major rock acts including Sum 41, Hanson and Pierce the Veil.
Sound Talent Group represented hundreds of artists and played a key role in the independent music scene. Shapiro was also a co-founder of the National Independent Talent Organization, formed in 2020 in response to the shutdown of live entertainment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shapiro was passionate about aviation. He developed his skills as a pilot beginning in 2005 and launched Velocity Aviation, a business offering flight instruction and aerial tours. According to the company’s website, he had logged thousands of hours of flight time over more than a million miles.
The Cessna 550 was registered to Daviator, an Alaska-based company, its name appearing to be a blend of Shapiro’s first name and the word aviator. It was built in 1985 and, according to public records, had been used for business and personal travel.
