28 years ago, Small plane crashes into Sun Valley Mall Concord.

I remember both the F-86 crashed in Sacramento in the early 70’s as well as the Sun Valley crash in Concord.

I lived in Walnut Creek for a bit in the mid-70’s.

I assume the later was headed to Buchanan?

Concord used to be a nice, middle-class neighborhood.

Nowadays, it’s a lot of “Nuerteno’s” and “Suereno’s”

BTW, the Dems have their eye on turning TX into a Blue State at which point the US is done.

There have been a bunch of crashes at the Eastridge Mall in San Jose, which was built at the end of the runway at Reid-Hillview airport (RHV). So now, of course, people are calling for the airport (which was there first) to be closed.

Extreme Fog, the pilot thought the mall was the runway. That’s what I remember about the report. It was a Beechcraft Baron. I will always remember that plane.. I still have days where I will smell something like fire or even certain times when we barbeque when I am taken back to that night. Heavy stuff for someone to forget.

We still go to Concord to visit family and it still has the nice areas but mostly you are correct.. The Crash was surreal. Me and my buddy were sitting on the edge of the fountain looking south towards the end of the mall. They had a 50 foot or so Christmas tree sitting in the middle of the fountain and it burst into flames and me and my friend just looked at one another like “what is that”, then looked back and ran. An instant later the fuselage came down and blew up more. Threw me to the ground. I tried to get up and help but I was to scared.

I was upstairs in line for santa claus with my niece. I was also 15 at the time. I dont remember the impact - the first thing I remember is jumping up from the ground the exact moment the fuel ignited. It burned the backs of my ears and I took off like a bat out of hell. It was definitely flight not fight. About the time I got to the other end of the mall I realized my niece wasnt with me I had left her (had serious guilt over that one for years). So they wouldnt let anyone back in the mall and my mother came out of macys found my niece immediately (she was fine she had covered her head with her jacket when thrown to the ground) Of course my mother couldnt find me so she was digging through the rubble upstairs while I went on camera for an interview indicating I couldnt find my niece. This unfortunately was seen by my sister. You cant make this shit up. It was 2 hours before we found each other. I can empathize with you on this one.

Michael Wilson
michael.wilson@ou.edu

Email me if you want to write about your experience I would like to exchange stories if you are interested.

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