Devil Wears Prada Drummer Killed in San Diego Plane Crash, Family Says

The former drummer for the metal-core band The Devil Wears Prada was killed in a plane crash early Thursday morning in San Diego, TMZ has learned from his family.

Larry Williams tells TMZ ... his son, Daniel, was among the victims of the Cessna crash around 4 AM, which set part of a residential neighborhood of U.S. Navy-owned housing on fire. Several people on the ground were hurt in the fire and one home was destroyed.

Larry tells us the family is confident he was on the plane and they know there were no survivors -- but they have yet to get an official confirmation from authorities, which is making the entire situation even worse.

The Devil Wears Prada also posted to social media that Daniel was killed, along with several pictures of their one-time drummer and the caption ... "♥️ no words. We owe you everything. Love you forever."

Just prior to the crash ... Daniel posted a picture of himself in the copilot's seat of the small plane. His father tells us he was just goofing around -- he did not have a pilot's license.

His son was not the current drummer of the popular Christian metal-core group ... but he was with them for years and was instrumental in the band's massive success, family says.

The Cessna could hold up to 10 people, but it is unclear how many were aboard when it went down.

San Diego authorities confirmed to us they have yet to notify all next of kin for the crash ... and no timeline on when notification would occur was given.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.