1957 Pacoima California Mid-Air Collision

My grandfather, William Carr, was the pilot of the DC-7. I knew Grandpa, a very experienced pilot, died in a Pacoima plane crash while flying for Douglas, but never knew the details surrounding the crash (grandma never really talked about it) until I began researching it several years ago (the CAB report is very thorough!). Your mini-documentary about the crash was very well done and I'm rather dismayed that YouTube would demonetize it. FWIW, the actual radio transmissions from the DC-7 after the F-89 hit its left wing near Hanson Dam: Pilot Carr: "Uncontrollable." Copilot Twitchell: "We're in a midair collision - midair collision, 10 How (aircraft identification using phonetic How for H) we are going in –uncontrollable, uncontrollable - we are . . . we've had it boy - poor jet too - told you we should take chutes - say goodbye to everybody." Radio Operator Nakazawa: "We are spinning in the valley." At the time of the crash, speeches were being practiced in the auditorium, which were recorded. For those interested, the rather eerie audio recording of the DC-7 hitting the ground can be heard at https://russellbuchanan.wordpress.com/2011/09/18/pacoima-jr-high-school-airplane-crash-of-1957-audio/ .

My husband's father was Waldo Adams and I was thankful to be able to see your report and share it with our children and grandchildren. Thanks for your excellent coverage.

"We've had it boy.... Say goodbye to everybody." that's class man

Thank you for reminding us of the 1957 Pacoima Mid-Air Collision. I remember this well. My parents moved us out to Pacoima in 1957 and I was in the 5th grade when this happened. Fortunately the planes didn’t hit my school that was 3 miles away. But I totally understand Ritchie Valens fear of flying. He actually had a good reason for it because we had many very bad airplane accidents in Pacoima from a small private (non-tower controlled) airport in Pacoima called Whiteman Air Park. There were lots of rookie pilots always crashing out there during those years. It was an odd set up at Whiteman Air Port (by Ritchie’s house) where pilots had to get enough lift to clear the power lines located at the end of the runway, and far too many didn’t. So it often resulted in fatal crashes from pilots hitting power lines. I lived over the flight path when I was little and it scared me to death because our local news papers always showed us photos and reports of those local plane crashes by my house in Pacoima. It seemed like it happened a lot. This is part of the story people don’t seem to bring up. Ritchie Valens lived west of the airport, I lived on the east side of it. Our fear of planes falling out of the sky was real. It seemed we always had some weird plane crashes out in the north east San Fernando Valley. All the conditions seem right for aircraft accidents out there. We had plenty of high winds, poorly maintained private aircraft, with rookie pilots at the controls, who were full of money and ego and deficient in flying skills. They were not as good as they though they were. Thank you so much for this excellent presentation. GOOD JOB!

Haven't thought about this for years. I was there that day in a classroom near the field, fortunately I was not injured. I remember my father coming to the school to get me and we walked home since we lived nearby. I remember walking through debris as we left the school grounds. Thanks, Good report.

I'm currently a San Fernando City resident. A few of my elderly neighbors survived unharmed that day. The 2 things they always reminisce about is being Richie Valens classmate and the Pacoima Air Crash. Thank You for reporting this story History Guy.

I used to watch “La Bamba”, with Lou Diamond Phillips, all the time as a kid. I remember his haunting nightmare scenes, with “Sleep Walk” playing... I never knew it was about this incident. Thanks for sharing.

As a 7th grader, I was on the playground at Robert Fulton Jr. High in Van Nuys, on that day of the mid-air collision. I heard the collision and turned to the Northeast; I can still see the plume of black smoke as it made its way toward the ground. Thank you for filling in the blanks about that tragic day. It could have just as easily occurred over my school.

My father was an Air Force pilot of that era, flying f-80 shooting stars, f-86 sabres and f-94 starfires (the 94's also being all weather interceptors). I'm not sure if he ever flew the f-89's. About 10 years ago he finally told me of several times he almost bought it during his time flying, including one near miss mid air collision. Like with so many of these tragedies, there were a series of factors that contributed to the situation. Thankfully the ground crew saved the day. Thanks for the detailed video.

Mid-air collisions are a pilot's worst nightmare. I was once en-route to Savanna Georgia in my puny Cessna 185 at 12,000 ft when ATC called to say they were painting a target 12 o'clock high, one mile ahead of me...basically head on. I strained and didn't see a thing...seconds later, a twin Beachcraft passed just BELOW me while I was looking upward, so close I could read the octane rating around the fuel caps on his upper wing when I glanced at his passing...so I can relate. The sky is big, really big, be we still manage to run into each other on occasion. Good story!

A guy I knew, Ralph Woolsey, was a teacher at the USC Cinema Dept. and beginning a career as Cinematographer on TV shows. They were shooting exteriors that day, and had to do a retake because of a bright flash in the sky. It was later surmised that it was this crash. They found their shooting site, enlarged the frame and were able to determine where the camera was set.. The math guys got busy and this helped them pin-loint the location of the actual crash in the air, so they could calculate how the wreckage had dispersed.

Thanks again History Guy! Valuable, informative, and touching. At 9:18 the mother said, "I didn't even kiss him goodbye this morning". I know how she feels, when we lost our 16 year old son one of the overwhelming emotions I felt that day was: I don't remember the last time I hugged him. Please, hug your children and tell them you love them, especially if they don't deserve it.

I remember seeing the parachute coming down in a clear sky over east Burbank after the crash - from John Burroughs High in Burbank. Some students who had cars were ditching to go see where he landed, which looked like it would have been a couple of miles away. Thanks for the memory jog!

My father told me he was one of the kids at that school. He mentioned it when we were watching La Bamba (shortly after it first came out on VHS), right after that dream sequence. I got the feeling it impacted him deeply, from the way he reacted. He had been enjoying the movie up to that point, but suddenly got very pale and quiet, edging into anger. He only ever mentioned it the once, and I got the feeling he wouldn't appreciate questions, so didn't ask any. He never watched that movie again, that I know of.

Don’t be too discouraged about not being able to answer all the comments, just focus on your fantastic content!

I developed an interest in air disasters after watching an episode of "Mayday" or one of its other names. I ended up watching almost all of them, and I remember this crash from those documentaries very well. I do not remember anyone mentioning the connection between this crash and the one that Ritchie Valens was involved in, so I just wanted to say thanks for telling the story again, as well as the extra information that I may have otherwise never knew. I'll be sharing this information in my conversations about these air disasters.

Having had a grammar school education and a history teacher whose idea of teaching was to write text on a black board from a jotter that he had been using since before I was born and told to copy it. This was the same text he had used since the school had opened and simply repeated year on year lesson by lesson. You don't need much imagination to realise I dropped history as a subject as soon as I possibly could. The teacher concerned, and I won't name him even though he is long since in his grave had a PhD in history but absolutely no interest in teaching it. I found your channel only recently and weep at some of the episodes you present. You are to the point with enough background to explain and an obvious enthusiasm for the subject that all teachers should take serious note of. I now have far more years behind me, my history, than I do in the future but there are still lessons to be learnt from the mishaps and adventures of our ancestors. One topic that has recently begun to interest me is the Scottish Highland Clearances. So many people from the area where I now live were forcefully removed from their homes and the land and often transported to the USA and Canada under horrific conditions. There must be dozens of first hand stories to be found from the ancestors of those that survived and thrived. Please keep up the good work, if only I had had a teacher like you 50 years ago. I thank you.

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, even living in the city next to Pacoima in the '70's, and this is the first time I can recall hearing about this crash. Thank you.

i’m a Pacoima native, i’ve known this story my entire life. i’ve heard it a million times but never with this much detail. thank you for the deep dive 🙏🏾