This project was supported in whole or in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian Made accessible through a grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation and Photo Friends
Photograph was edited for publication purposes. On February 1, 1958, an Air Force Douglas C118 transport plane leaving Long Beach Airport collided with a Navy Lockheed P2V Neptune patrol bomber leaving Los Alamitos Naval Air Station. The transport plane, carrying 41, crashed into the sheriff’s sub-station, killing all aboard. The bomber, carrying 8, crashed in a dump in Santa Fe Springs, had two survivors. One woman on the ground was killed. This crash, along with similar accidents in California around the same time, prompted a federal investigation and resulted in a ban on low level departures from Los Alamitos Naval Air Station. Photograph caption dated February 3, 1958 reads "Only tail section of C-118 Military Air Transport plane remains after huge passenger ship plunged into filling station at 11771 Firestone Blvd. after mid-air collision with patrol bomber over Norwalk. Attendant miraculously escaped injury when plane descended in roar and embedded itself into service station. All 41 persons aboard this plane bound from Long Beach to New Jersey [sic] perished."
Douglas Aircraft Company Lockheed Aircraft Corporation Men Aircraft accidents Transport planes Airplanes Service stations Debris Norwalk (Calif.) Night photographs
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