Small world...It was many years ago and I was just going off memory...
Nice story...
The crash -- not so much.
From what I just read it was estimated the speed was 770 mph at impact. A full power nose dive...with those in the area hearing the aircraft break the sound barrier.
I've had people that were living in that part of SLO County tell me they heard the sonic boom, with one guy telling me he heard the aircraft go into a dive, or heard it going by before the 'boom' -- but some miles South of the wreck, from the valley to that direction.
Possibly --- he had never heard a sonic boom at that low an elevation, I dunno. But the next time I get a chance to speak with that person, I'll see if I can jog his memory. Personally, myself, my first time in that area (other than just passing through when just a child, riding along in the family station wagon, some time in the 1960's) wasn't until about seven months or so after the crash.