| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | 31 January 1957 |
| Type | Mid-air collision |
| Site | Over the San Fernando Valley, California, United States |
| Total injuries | 75 (estimated) |
| Total fatalities | 8 |
| First aircraft | |
| Type | Douglas DC-7B |
| Operator | Douglas Aircraft Company |
| Flight origin | Santa Monica Airport, Santa Monica, California, United States |
| Destination | Santa Monica Airport, Santa Monica, California, United States |
| Passengers | 0 |
| Crew | 4 |
| Injuries | 0 (plus estimated 74 on ground) |
| Fatalities | 4 (plus 3 on ground) |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Second aircraft | |
A Northrop F-89J Scorpion of the Wisconsin Air National Guard's 176th Fighter Interceptor Squadron in October 1972. |
|
| Type | Northrop F-89J Scorpion |
| Operator | United States Air Force |
| Flight origin | Palmdale, California, United States |
| Destination | Palmdale, California, United States |
| Passengers | 0 |
| Crew | 2 |
| Injuries | 1 |
| Fatalities | 1 |
| Survivors | 1 |
On January 31, 1957, a Douglas DC-7 operated by Douglas Aircraft Company was involved in a mid-air collision with a United States Air Force Northrop F-89 Scorpion and crashed into the schoolyard of Pacoima Junior High School in Pacoima in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California.[1][2] By February 1, seven people had died and about 74 had been injured due to the incident.[3] A 12-year-old boy subsequently died from multiple injuries from the incident on February 2.[4]
The DC-7B, earmarked for delivery to Continental Airlines, took off from the Santa Monica Airport at 10:15 a.m. on its first functional test flight, with a crew of four Douglas test personnel aboard. Meanwhile, in Palmdale to the north, a two-man F-89J fighter jet took off at 10:50 a.m. on a similar test flight, one that involved a check of its on-board radar equipment. Both aircraft were performing their individual tests at an altitude of 25,000 feet in clear skies over the San Fernando Valley when, at about 11:18 a.m., a high-speed, near-head-on midair collision occurred. Investigators were later able to determine that the two aircraft converged at a point in the sky approximately one to two miles northeast of the Hansen Dam spillway.[5]
Following the collision, Curtiss Adams, the radarman aboard the eastbound twin-engine F-89J Scorpion, was able to bail out of the stricken fighter jet and, despite incurring serious burns, parachuted to a landing onto a garage roof in Burbank, breaking his leg when he fell to the ground. The fighter jet’s pilot, Roland E. Owen, died when the aircraft plummeted in flames into La Tuna Canyon in the Verdugo Mountains.[6]
The DC-7B, with a portion of its left wing sheared off, raining debris onto the neighborhoods below, remained airborne for a few minutes, then rolled to the left and began an uncontrolled high-velocity dive earthward over Pacoima. The aircraft broke up at about 500 to 1,000 feet above the ground. Seconds later, the hurtling wreckage slammed onto the grounds of the Pacoima Congregational Church and the adjacent playground of Pacoima Junior High School, killing all four Douglas crewmen aboard. On the school playground, where some 220 boys were just ending their outdoor athletics activities, two students, Ronnie Brann, 13, and Robert Zallan, 12, were struck and killed by wreckage and debris from the crashing airliner. A third gravely injured student, Evan Elsner, 12, died two days later in a local hospital. An estimated 74 more students on the school playground suffered injuries ranging from critical to minor.[7]
The collision was blamed on pilot error and the failure of both aircraft crews to exercise proper “see and avoid” procedures regarding other aircraft while operating under visual flight rules (VFR). The crash also prompted the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to set restrictions on all aircraft test flights, both military and civilian, requiring that they be made over open water or specifically approved sparsely populated areas.[8]
The Pacoima crash is referenced in Luis Valdez's 1987 film La Bamba, a biographical account of the short life of '50s rock and roll singer Ritchie Valens. A 15-year-old student at Pacoima Junior High School at the time of the disaster, he was not at school on the day of the accident because he was attending the funeral of his grandfather, Frank Reyes. Valens developed a fear of flying that he overcame after he launched his rock and roll career. In a tragic irony, Valens, along with fellow musicians Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson, perished two years after the Pacoima crash when their chartered Beechcraft Bonanza crashed near Mason City, Iowa in the early morning hours of February 3, 1959.
Pacoima Junior High School changed its name to Pacoima Middle School in 1992.
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