EPISODE 81: 10 DEVASTATING AIRLINE CRASHES TO KNOW ABOUT IN THE HISTORY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AVIATION

In this week's episode of Living in the Sprawl: Southern California's Most Adventurous Podcast, host Jon Steinberg shares his list of 10 devastating airline crashes to know about in the history of Southern California aviation. His list includes: X15 flight 191 in Ranceburg, two plane collision in Cerritos, Pacific Southwest flight 182 in San Diego, Pacific Southwest flight 1771 in Cayucos, Alaska Airlines flight 261 in Port Hueneme, Golden West airlines flight 261 in Whittier, Hawthorne Nevada flight 708 in Mount Whitney, Hughes Air West flight 706 in the San Gabriel Mountains, Standard Airlines flight 897R in Burbank and United Airlines flight 266 in Santa Monica.

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Transcript

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Hello listeners and fellow explorers. This is living in the sprawls lovely and talented producer slash wife, Lisa Steinberg. I wanted to thank all of you for your continuous support of the show. As a new podcast on the scene, John and I self-support the logistics and research that go into the show. The number one way to support the show is to rate, review and share this podcast with everyone, you know, Many of you have been doing this and it has helped immensely. I also invite you to check out our website and the show notes for other ways to support the show. We are currently working with companies. We currently use ourselves. To get discount codes for our listeners and support the show in the process. These companies include. Every table, just CBD store, gold belly cats, botanicals, and so much more. By using the links on our website, you are letting them know we sent you an intern, supporting the show. You can also support us on Patrion and pod fan. Please check out the website@livinginthesprawlpodcast.com. For updates on companies we are working with our testimonies links codes and new living in the sprawl merchandise Again thank you to all of you our lovely listeners for tuning in every week and allowing us to do what we love Without further ado you're humble correspondent John steinberg Hello, and welcome to another edition of living in the sprawl, Southern California, his most adventurous podcast. I am as always your humble host and correspondent. My name is John Steinberg and I am joined in the sprawl studio by my lovely, an immensely talented producer slash my wife. Her name is Lisa Steinberg. We are the team here at sprawl enterprises. Ready to bring you yet? Another exciting. Foray into the vast, expansive to rain. That we have decided to call. The sprawl. On today's show. We remember. The fate of some of those. That weren't quite so lucky. Today, we're going to be looking at. Accidents in the air. Plane crashes. And we're not going to do it in the sensationalized. Discovery plus. Investigation discovery type of way. We're going to be respectful as we always attempt to be on this year podcast. We're going to be examining 10. Airline crashes. As we remember those that perished. In them. I remember. When I learned about John Madden's fear of flying. The Superbowl winning coach. Most widely. I'd say now recognized. For having his name, be a part of the longstanding, extremely successful. Madden EA sports gaming franchise. Had a pretty famous fear of flying. He would take. Elaborate. Musician style tour buses to get to each gig. So I remember being a kid. And thinking, wow, that seems like an extraordinary. Waste of time to be honest. But after. Learning a bit more about. Some of the pitfalls of flying. I understood. Why Mr. Madden felt the way that he did. When we make a decision. To hop a board. Uh, sky bound, 7 47. We are essentially relinquishing control over. Absolutely. Every aspect. Of the next couple of hours to someone else. We're literally. Traveling. In the sky. It's something that would have seemed. Rather unthinkable 150 years ago. Is now completely woven into the fabric. Of life on planet earth. But that's not to say. That airline travel. Comes off without a hitch. Indeed. Crashes still very much take place. In the many decades since. Flight became. Uh, part of the American culture. There have been a plethora of airline accidents. To have taken. Place amid. The territory that we examine when we talk about the sprawl. Today, let's examine. And remember. The times when. Accidents very much happened. The people that were lost. As we attempt to learn from our past. So that. These horrible incidents. Did not happen in vain. I know we're 10. The. X 15. Airline The simulator. Crashes. In rants Berg in 1967. There was one fatality. Associated with this particular crash. Pilot. Michael J. Adams. And the flight. It was commissioned as part. Of basically a co-production between NASA. In the AAV. Asian industry. Prior to. Our successful voyage to the moon. There were a number. Uh, flights that had to be undertaken. In order to, oh, walk before Neil Armstrong. Buzz Aldrin and company. Could run. Unfortunately. The 1967 crash in Grantsburg located in a pretty rural part of Kern county. Was it example. Of an occasion. When the trial and error period yielded. Uh, result in the. Latter category. Mr. Adams. His name. In memory. Our forever enshrined. At the Kennedy space center in Cape Canaveral as part of the. Mirrored wall of remembrance. Officially recognizing his contributions. As an astronaut. At number nine. The crash. Of air Mexico flight. 4 96. This happened. In the year of our Lord, 1986. When a massive jetliner collided. With the civilian plane. Over the city of Seritos. Everyone a board, both. Planes perished. As did. A number. Of civilians. Simply living out their lives. On the ground in that city of Cerritos. There's actually a Memorial. Part of a. Sculpture garden in the Cerritos area commemorating. The over 60 individuals who lost their lives on that day in 1986. Planes. Can go down for variety of reasons. Here. A family of three. Flew a private plane. From the airport in Torrance with their destination being big Bayer Unbeknownst to them. A massive. Flight from port of IRT. Was also Skybound at the exact same moment. The planes collided in midair. Resulting in, as I mentioned, the. Casualties. Of everyone aboard. This is one of the more infamous. Airline crashes to have ever happened in the United States. Let alone the sprawl. And it served as the inspiration for that plot line. In breaking bad. Where. Jane's father. Working as an air traffic controller. Kind of loses control for a bit. And two planes wind up colliding resulting in a bunch of debris littering down on the ground below. As seen in that season's first episode. Number nine. The tragic crash. From 1986. Involving an air Mexico flight. And a civilian plane. And number eight. Another example of two planes colliding in midair. Pacific. The Southwest flight, 180 2. Which collided. With the civilian plane. Over the streets of San Diego. At the time this was the deadliest. Airline crash in us history. It wound up being surpassed a scan. A handful of months later. But it was the deadliest one at the time, 144 people lost their lives. And when it came down, To assigning culpability. Both. Parties were to blame. And here again, like the crash over Cerritos. A gargantuan amount. Of debris was scattered. All around the north park area. And a local elementary school was actually utilized. As a makeshift triage center. Where nurses treated the wounds of. Those affected by the crash. There is a Memorial. In the north park area commemorating. The 144 souls. That perished. On that day in the late seventies. Not a day that. Anyone. We'll soon. Forget. Number seven. The Pacific Southwest flight. One. 7 7 1. That was brought down. As an act of. Well, it was a murder. Suicide revenge situation that happened. Also in the late 1970s. With 44. Individuals losing their lives as a result. The crash happened. In San Luis Obispo county. Near Mount Lucilia. Just outside. on this occasion. It wasn't a midair. Collision. It was a disgruntled former employee. Who took revenge in the worst way possible. You see. A former employee of the airline, David, a Burke. Had recently been, let go. And. His termination was not met with any level of acceptance. And what would prove to be. I need incident so bad that it would change. Aviation policy going forward. Burke who had been working. Near the TSA. Screening portion. Of the airport actually managed to hold on to his credentials. Which had yet to be reclaimed in the aftermath of his termination. He used those credentials. To get himself through security. With. A loaded firearm. In one of the most horrible. Incidents in sprawl aviation history. He began shooting. As the plane was hovering over San Luis Obispo county. Ultimately. Proceeding directly. Down. Into the earth at the speed of sound. The plane was going around 700 miles an hour when it crashed. Claiming the lives of all 44 souls on board. After this. It became departmental policy. To have former employees. Give back. All of their credentials immediately. Following termination. Or if they. We're just leaving a job so that this type of scheme could never happen again. But it did happen at least once in the seventies. And those 44. People that lost their lives will always be remembered. Uh, number six. Alaska airlines flight 2 61 crashes. Just outside port. Y In the winter. Of 2000. On this occasion. The plane in question. Malfunctioned in the sense that. The. Jack screw. Which controlled. Vital. Portions of the plane came undone. This dramatically compromised, the airline's ability to effectively navigate the skies. And even though. Pilots. Administered multiple attempts. To save the plane. It nevertheless, wound up crashing. In the Pacific ocean. This one led to some court cases. A multitude of investigations. The Alaska airlines name. Pretty well being dragged through the mud. And culpability. Principally being assigned to those that worked on behalf of that particular airline. 88 people died. In January of 2000. And both pilots were posthumously awarded. Gold metals. In recognition for their efforts to bring the plane. Home safely. The only two pilots to ever receive. These metals posthumously. When the Jack screw came on done. Pilots attempted. To steady the plane that was rapidly. Sinking. Eventually. Basically flying the plane. As though the top. We're lying on its stomach. The move did provide. The pilots. With a little bit of extra breathing room. More time to try and prevent what was ultimately going to happen. But alas, the plane did crash. In 88 people died as a result. There's a Memorial. In port, why Niemi that was commissioned. My family members. Of the victims that were lost and it stands today. It is a. Rather elegant sundial. With all 88 of the names listed. On it. And what happened to. Alaska flight. 2 6 1. Served as the inspiration. Four. The events that take place in the Robert Zemeckis, Denzel Washington movie flight. Now in that movie. Only a handful of the passengers. Actually perish. And then Zelle does manage to blame the flight home safely, but his. Maneuvers. As seen in the film com pretty much directly from what happened. Two. The doomed. Playing flight that went down in January of the year, 2000. And number five golden west. Uh, flight 2 6, 1. Collides with. A civilian plane. Over the city of Whittier. In the late 1970s. As a result of the crash. 14 people lost their lives. And when. Rummaging through. Details of the event trying to assign blame, basically figure out what happened. It was deemed. That golden west flight, 2 61. Essentially had a big blind spot. When it came. To the civilian plane. That collided with it. Much debris was scattered. In a remote part. Of Whittier. And 14 people did lose their lives as a result of the tragic accident. And number four. Hawthorne Nevada flight 7 0 8. That managed to crash just outside. Mount Whitney. Near the lone pine section of the sprawl. Here. What was. Supposed to be a routine flight encountered. Troubling weather patterns. And rather than. Take the slower longer way around. The pilots attempted. To quickly get to their destination. Sacrificing much in the way of visibility. Over 30 people. Lost their lives. In this tragic accident. And we do our best to remember them on this podcast. And number three, Hughes air west. Flight 7 0 6 goes down. In the Angeles forest in the San Gabriel mountains. 1971. Over 45 individuals lost their lives. This was right after. Howard Hughes. Had acquired the airliner. And though. The tragic events on that day in the early 1970s. We'll always haunt the family members of those lost in the crash. We choose to honor their legacy. As we remember. The over 45 individuals that lost their lives. Uh, board. Hughes. Air west flight 7 0 6. Number two. A standard. Airlines. Uh, flight eight. Nine seven. Goes down. Near Chatsworth. Claiming the lives of all, but a handful. Of survivors. This happened in 1949. Certainly. A different era in aviation history. Then the 1970s, eighties. And when researching this particular tragedy, I learned about. One of the survivors. An actress named. Karen. Who's actually still alive at the time of this recording. She's 103 years old. And worked. As the stand in for Judy Garland on the set of the wizard of Oz. There were survivors. As I mentioned a handful of But when. Standard airlines. When this plane went down. It meant the end of the airline period standard. No longer operated flights after the events. That happened in 1949. When this plane went down. In the San Fernando valley. The. Santa Susanna mountains. In Chatsworth. And the number one. As we count down. Some of the most tragic. Accidents in aviation history that have occurred in the sprawl. The crash. Uh, flight 2 66. That crashed. In the Santa Monica bay. Pacific ocean. Claiming the lives of over 30 individuals aboard. And I wish that I could sit here and say, That. These accidents are a thing of the past. With the exception of. One. We decided to highlight nine examples that happened in decades past. But that can't be. Stated as fact. Ultimately when you purchase that ticket. Hop in your seat, a board. An airplane. You really don't have any control over what's going on. Again, bringing home. The reasons why John Madden. I chose to take the bus. And that's going to do it for another installment of the show. We'd like to thank everyone for their continued support. Couple of easy ways to demonstrate that support hop on apple iTunes, leave us a five star. Rating and a kind review that stuff really helps us out a great deal on the business end. Follow us on Instagram. The handle is living in the sprawl podcast. Drop us a line and email living in the sprawl podcast@gmail.com is the place to do that. Also, we'd like to direct you to our terrific website and it's on this website that you could get your hands on living in the sprawl. Merchandise, if you can think of it and it's living in the sprawl related, the website is the place. To get also, my memoir is available for purchase on the website. And so it went. Is there right now. And you can get your hands on that. If you choose. As well. On behalf of myself, I am as always your humble host and correspondent. My name is John Steinberg joined by my lovely and incredibly talented producer slash my wife. Her name is Lisa Steinberg. Thinking you again. For listening to another episode of living in the sprawl so the California's most adventurous podcasts talk to you all very soon