Ronnie was killed on January 31, 1957, when three students on the playground of Pacoima Junior High School were among the eight persons killed as the result of a midair collision between a four-engine Douglas DC-7B airliner and a United States Air Force Northrop F-89J Scorpion jet fighter in the skies above nearby Sunland.
Following the collision, Curtiss Adams, the radarman aboard the eastbound twin-engine F-89J Scorpion, was able to bail out of the stricken fighter jet and, despite incurring serious burns, parachute to a landing in Burbank. However, the fighter jet's pilot, Roland E. Owen, died when the aircraft plummeted in flames into La Tuna Canyon in the Verdugo Mountains.
The DC-7B, with a portion of its left wing sheared off and while raining debris onto the neighborhoods below, remained airborne for a few minutes, then rolled to the left and began a steepening, high-velocity dive earthward over Pacoima. The aircraft broke up at about 500 to 1,000 feet above the ground and seconds later the hurtling wreckage slammed onto the grounds of the Pacoima Congregational Church and the adjacent playground of Pacoima Junior High School, killing all four Douglas crewmen aboard. On the school playground, where some 220 boys were just ending their outdoor athletics activities, two students -- Ronnie Brann, 13, and Robert Zallan, 12, -- were struck and killed by flying portions of wreckage and debris from the crashing airliner. A third gravely injured student, Evan Elsner, 12, died two days later in a local hospital. An estimated 74 additional students on the school playground suffered injuries ranging from minor to critical.
The Pacoima crash is referenced in the 1987 film La Bamba, a biographical account of the short life of veteran rock 'n' roll singer Ritchie Valens. Valens was a 15-year-old student at Pacoima Junior High School at the time of the disaster, but was away from the school campus, attending the funeral of his grandfather, on the day of the crash. Ironically, Valens, along with fellow musicians Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper, along with pilot Roger Peterson, would perish just over two years later in the crash of a chartered Beechcraft Bonanza near Mason City, Iowa in the early morning hours of February 3, 1959.
Many excellent first person accounts of the crash can be found at http://angiejim.homestead.com/PacoimaJHS.html
Following the collision, Curtiss Adams, the radarman aboard the eastbound twin-engine F-89J Scorpion, was able to bail out of the stricken fighter jet and, despite incurring serious burns, parachute to a landing in Burbank. However, the fighter jet's pilot, Roland E. Owen, died when the aircraft plummeted in flames into La Tuna Canyon in the Verdugo Mountains.
The DC-7B, with a portion of its left wing sheared off and while raining debris onto the neighborhoods below, remained airborne for a few minutes, then rolled to the left and began a steepening, high-velocity dive earthward over Pacoima. The aircraft broke up at about 500 to 1,000 feet above the ground and seconds later the hurtling wreckage slammed onto the grounds of the Pacoima Congregational Church and the adjacent playground of Pacoima Junior High School, killing all four Douglas crewmen aboard. On the school playground, where some 220 boys were just ending their outdoor athletics activities, two students -- Ronnie Brann, 13, and Robert Zallan, 12, -- were struck and killed by flying portions of wreckage and debris from the crashing airliner. A third gravely injured student, Evan Elsner, 12, died two days later in a local hospital. An estimated 74 additional students on the school playground suffered injuries ranging from minor to critical.
The Pacoima crash is referenced in the 1987 film La Bamba, a biographical account of the short life of veteran rock 'n' roll singer Ritchie Valens. Valens was a 15-year-old student at Pacoima Junior High School at the time of the disaster, but was away from the school campus, attending the funeral of his grandfather, on the day of the crash. Ironically, Valens, along with fellow musicians Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper, along with pilot Roger Peterson, would perish just over two years later in the crash of a chartered Beechcraft Bonanza near Mason City, Iowa in the early morning hours of February 3, 1959.
Many excellent first person accounts of the crash can be found at http://angiejim.homestead.com/PacoimaJHS.html
Ronnie was killed on January 31, 1957, when three students on the playground of Pacoima Junior High School were among the eight persons killed as the result of a midair collision between a four-engine Douglas DC-7B airliner and a United States Air Force Northrop F-89J Scorpion jet fighter in the skies above nearby Sunland.
Following the collision, Curtiss Adams, the radarman aboard the eastbound twin-engine F-89J Scorpion, was able to bail out of the stricken fighter jet and, despite incurring serious burns, parachute to a landing in Burbank. However, the fighter jet's pilot, Roland E. Owen, died when the aircraft plummeted in flames into La Tuna Canyon in the Verdugo Mountains.
The DC-7B, with a portion of its left wing sheared off and while raining debris onto the neighborhoods below, remained airborne for a few minutes, then rolled to the left and began a steepening, high-velocity dive earthward over Pacoima. The aircraft broke up at about 500 to 1,000 feet above the ground and seconds later the hurtling wreckage slammed onto the grounds of the Pacoima Congregational Church and the adjacent playground of Pacoima Junior High School, killing all four Douglas crewmen aboard. On the school playground, where some 220 boys were just ending their outdoor athletics activities, two students -- Ronnie Brann, 13, and Robert Zallan, 12, -- were struck and killed by flying portions of wreckage and debris from the crashing airliner. A third gravely injured student, Evan Elsner, 12, died two days later in a local hospital. An estimated 74 additional students on the school playground suffered injuries ranging from minor to critical.
The Pacoima crash is referenced in the 1987 film La Bamba, a biographical account of the short life of veteran rock 'n' roll singer Ritchie Valens. Valens was a 15-year-old student at Pacoima Junior High School at the time of the disaster, but was away from the school campus, attending the funeral of his grandfather, on the day of the crash. Ironically, Valens, along with fellow musicians Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper, along with pilot Roger Peterson, would perish just over two years later in the crash of a chartered Beechcraft Bonanza near Mason City, Iowa in the early morning hours of February 3, 1959.
Many excellent first person accounts of the crash can be found at http://angiejim.homestead.com/PacoimaJHS.html
Following the collision, Curtiss Adams, the radarman aboard the eastbound twin-engine F-89J Scorpion, was able to bail out of the stricken fighter jet and, despite incurring serious burns, parachute to a landing in Burbank. However, the fighter jet's pilot, Roland E. Owen, died when the aircraft plummeted in flames into La Tuna Canyon in the Verdugo Mountains.
The DC-7B, with a portion of its left wing sheared off and while raining debris onto the neighborhoods below, remained airborne for a few minutes, then rolled to the left and began a steepening, high-velocity dive earthward over Pacoima. The aircraft broke up at about 500 to 1,000 feet above the ground and seconds later the hurtling wreckage slammed onto the grounds of the Pacoima Congregational Church and the adjacent playground of Pacoima Junior High School, killing all four Douglas crewmen aboard. On the school playground, where some 220 boys were just ending their outdoor athletics activities, two students -- Ronnie Brann, 13, and Robert Zallan, 12, -- were struck and killed by flying portions of wreckage and debris from the crashing airliner. A third gravely injured student, Evan Elsner, 12, died two days later in a local hospital. An estimated 74 additional students on the school playground suffered injuries ranging from minor to critical.
The Pacoima crash is referenced in the 1987 film La Bamba, a biographical account of the short life of veteran rock 'n' roll singer Ritchie Valens. Valens was a 15-year-old student at Pacoima Junior High School at the time of the disaster, but was away from the school campus, attending the funeral of his grandfather, on the day of the crash. Ironically, Valens, along with fellow musicians Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper, along with pilot Roger Peterson, would perish just over two years later in the crash of a chartered Beechcraft Bonanza near Mason City, Iowa in the early morning hours of February 3, 1959.
Many excellent first person accounts of the crash can be found at http://angiejim.homestead.com/PacoimaJHS.html
Inscription
Beloved Son
Victim of Pacoima Jr. High air crash
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Records on Ancestry
Advertisement
