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
On January 31, 1957, a Douglas DC-7B transport plane crashed into the school yard of Pacoima Junior High School, 9919 Laurel Canyon Boulevard, after colliding with a Northrop F-89J Scorpion jet trainer plane. Debris was also strewn across the grounds of Terra Bella Elementary School, adjacent to the junior high, and Pacoima Congregational Church, next door to the school. Three students and five airmen died and many more students were injured. The radarman aboard the jet was the only airman who survived. See images 00147115 through 00147134 for all photos in this series. Photograph article dated March 21, 1957 partially reads, "Curtiss Adams, 27, of Palmdale, the only man to escape when a Douglas transport plane collided with a jet fighter over the Valley last Jan. 31, was scheduled to testify today as the Civil Aeronautics Board continued its probe of the fatal crash... Earlier, the panel heard accounts of the tragedy from five eye witnesses... Avrit, a Lockheed Aircraft Corp. engineer, said he was at Thornton street and Hollywood Way at the time of the collision. 'Following the impact, I couldn't see any airplanes for four or five seconds, then I saw the jet fall away in a ball of fire.'" See images 00147115 through 00147122 for all photos in this series.
United States.--Civil Aeronautics Board Northrop Aircraft, Inc Douglas Aircraft Company Governmental investigations--California--San Fernando Valley Airplane crash survival--California--San Fernando Valley Aircraft accidents--California--San Fernando Valley Accident victims--California--San Fernando Valley Men--California--San Fernando Valley Scorpion (Jet fighter plane) San Fernando Valley (Calif.) Portrait photographs
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