Authorities said a driver and passenger were killed after a vehicle fleeing Napa County deputies slammed into the visitor parking area near Travis Air Force Base and caught fire.

FAIRFIELD, CA — Two people died early Tuesday after a pursuit that began with a traffic stop in Napa County ended in a fiery crash at the entrance to Travis Air Force Base, leaving the base’s main gate closed for hours and triggering a multiagency investigation.

Officials said the case quickly moved beyond a routine crash because it crossed county lines, involved a law enforcement pursuit and ended at the edge of a major Air Force installation in Solano County. The immediate questions Tuesday were why deputies tried to stop the car, how fast it was traveling before impact and whether investigators will find evidence that explains the final moments before the vehicle overturned and burned.

The incident began at 12:04 a.m., when Napa County sheriff’s deputies tried to stop a Mercedes on Highway 12 just east of Highway 29, according to the sheriff’s office. Authorities have not said what led to the stop. Deputies said the car fled, starting a chase that continued south and east into Solano County. At 12:17 a.m., the vehicle crashed near the visitor parking lot at Travis Air Force Base and was immediately engulfed in flames. Deputies tried to put out the fire with extinguishers from their patrol vehicles, but the flames spread too quickly. By 12:25 a.m., fire crews and personnel from Travis had reached the scene, and the driver and passenger were declared dead. Frank Mejack, who was nearby when the wreck happened, said he heard “the initial boom” and walked outside fearing that an aircraft had gone down before he saw police cars, fire trucks and the burning vehicle near the gate.

Authorities released only limited details through much of Tuesday, and several major points remained unsettled. Officials did not say what speed the car had reached before the crash, though one local report said investigators were looking at a high speed run during the short pursuit. They also did not explain what caused the driver to lose control. By later Tuesday, the driver was identified by local authorities as John Earl Newton III, 28, of West Sacramento, while the passenger’s name had not yet been released publicly. Fairfield police said the crash shut the main gate to Travis for much of the morning, forcing traffic to other entry points. Video posted to social media shortly after 1 a.m. appeared to show an overturned, burned out vehicle near a base entrance sign. News crews at the scene described caution tape, emergency vehicles and gurneys near the wreckage as investigators worked through daylight hours.

The crash site drew added attention because Travis is one of the Air Force’s main mobility hubs on the West Coast, home to the 60th Air Mobility Wing and other units that support cargo, refueling and medical transport missions. The base sits along a heavily traveled corridor between Napa County and Solano County, near Highway 12 and Interstate 80, where overnight law enforcement activity can quickly affect both civilian traffic and military access. Even so, fatal crashes at the front gate are unusual, and the combination of a pursuit, a military installation and a fire intense enough to defeat hand extinguishers made Tuesday’s case stand out. The location also complicated the response. The pursuit started in Napa County, the wreck occurred in Fairfield and the scene sat at the edge of federal property, requiring local police, sheriff’s deputies, base personnel and state investigators to sort out responsibility for different parts of the inquiry.

By Tuesday afternoon, officials had outlined the main investigative lanes but had not announced any criminal findings beyond the deaths of the two people in the car. Fairfield police said they were handling the collision investigation with help from the California Highway Patrol’s Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team, which is often called in for major or technically complex crashes. KTVU reported that the broader case was being led by the Solano County Major Crimes Task Force under supervision from the district attorney’s office. That structure suggests investigators will review not only the mechanics of the crash but also the pursuit itself, including dispatch records, deputy statements, in-car video if available and any surveillance footage from roads leading to the base. Authorities had not said Tuesday whether toxicology tests, autopsy findings or a reconstruction timeline would be released. No hearing date, charging decision or public briefing schedule had been announced by late Tuesday because the only known suspects in the case were the two people who died.

At the scene, the human impact was visible even after the fire was out. Commuters arriving at Travis found the main gate blocked and were redirected while investigators photographed debris and measured the crash area. Witnesses described a loud blast followed by the sight of flames lighting the entrance area before a line of emergency vehicles closed in. Mejack said that once he reached the street, he could see “the fire and everything else” beyond the first wave of responders. Officials did not report injuries to deputies, base personnel or bystanders, and there was no indication Tuesday that anyone outside the fleeing vehicle had been hurt. That left investigators with a narrow but important task: determine what happened in the 13 minutes between the attempted stop on Highway 12 and the fatal impact at the base, and explain whether anything in that chain of events points to a larger public safety issue or misconduct by any agency involved.

As of Tuesday evening, the two deaths remained under investigation, the passenger had not been publicly identified and authorities still had not said why the original stop was made. The next milestone is expected to be the formal release of investigative findings or additional identification details from local authorities.

Author note: Last updated March 31, 2026.