Pacoima Mid-Air Collision

Date: January 31, 1957 • Location: San Fernando, United States

A DC-7B operated by Douglas Aircraft collided in mid-air with a U.S. Air Force F-89 and crashed into a schoolyard in Pacoima, California.

The Douglas DC-7 is a retired American airliner built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1953 to 1958. A derivative of the DC-6, it was the last major piston engine-powered passenger aircraft made by Douglas, being developed shortly after the earliest jet airliner, the de Havilland Comet, entered service and only a few years before the jet-powered Douglas DC-8 first flew in 1958. A large number of both DC-7B and DC-7C variants were also built, with a handful of aircraft converted for the purpose of cargo hauling or fire-fighting after their commercial transport days had passed.