This information is added by users of ASN. Neither ASN nor the Flight Safety Foundation are responsible for the completeness or correctness of this information.
If you feel this information is incomplete or incorrect, you can
submit corrected information.
Date: | Monday 1 October 1962 |
Time: | night |
Type: | de Havilland DH.104 Dove 6BA |
Owner/operator: | Center Aviation |
Registration: | N1542V |
MSN: | 04364 |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 8 / Occupants: 8 |
Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
Location: | Santa Maria, CA -
United States of America
|
Phase: | Approach |
Nature: | Passenger - Non-Scheduled/charter/Air Taxi |
Departure airport: | Hawthorne Airport, CA |
Destination airport: | Santa Maria Airport, CA |
Confidence Rating: | Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Narrative:I saw this crash. 7 missile techs from from Martin Aircraft Co. VAFB died. I was 12 years old. This plane was supposedly sabotaged, it was about 40-50 feet above the Tree Tops. It flew over my house, my friends and I were in my back yard playing tetherball just before the sun went down. The plane was extremely low, and something on or in that plane exploded. It did not crash because of hitting a tree. After the explosion it nose dived into eucalyptus trees, engines were buried in the sand 2-3 feet. One of my buddies, a neighbor actually saw this plane nose dive into the trees. I Saw the crash minutes after it happened. It was awful! Truly a sad night! I do not know if the Pilot was counted as the 8th person on board? I clearly remember 7 dead missile techs from VAFB reported, returning from Colorado.
Sources:
The Bulletin 2 October 1962, p4
San Bernardino Sun 3 October 1962, p10B
World Directory of Airliner Crashes/Terry Denham
Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
02-Jan-2017 18:55 |
TB |
Added |
19-Nov-2017 16:27 |
TB |
Updated [Date, Time, Aircraft type, Registration, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
11-Dec-2019 13:12 |
TB |
Updated [Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Operator, Source] |
19-Sep-2022 05:50 |
Chuck |
Updated [Narrative] |