1930 – Jan 2, Motion Picture Planes Collide, Santa Monica, CA                              —     10

Compiled by Wayne Blanchard; last edit 1-31-2025 for upload to: http://www.usdeadlyevents.com/

—  10  NFPA. “Airplane Fire Record.”  NFPA Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 3, January, 1932, p. 315.

—  10  Oakland Tribune (CA).  “Divers Hunt 7 Victims of Plane Crash,” January 3, 1930, p. 1. 

Narrative Information

National Fire Protection Association: “Ten men lost their lives when two planes used in producing a motion picture collided in the air and burst into flames as the gasoline tanks ignited.” (NFPA Quarterly, V25, N3, Jan, 1932, 315)

Newspaper

Jan 3: “SANTA MONICA. Jan. 3  (AP)—Investigations and a search for bodies arose today in the wake of a. motion picture disaster that claimed 10 lives in a collision of airplanes over the ocean three miles off shore from here late yesterday.  A half dozen speedboats patrolled the sea graveyard where two cabin ships carrying 10 persons, one of whom was a noted film director plunged beneath the waves with their dead after they had collided 3,500 feet up while maneuvering for camera shots of a daring parachute jump.

“Only the three bodies which were lifted from the ocean shells shortly after the tragedy yesterday had been found.  The remainder, it was believed, were pinioned in the mass of wreckage of the two planes on the ocean floor….

“The occupants of the two planes were making a movie ‘thriller’ when the crash occurred…. Yesterday  they soared out above the sea – two plane loads of men and cameras and equipment.  They hovered over a third plane, waiting for a stunt man to drop away toward the water with his parachute.  They were to make a thrilling sequence in a story based on the mid-channel disappearance of Captain Alfred Lowenstein, Belgian financier, from a France-to-England transport plane July 5, 1928. 

“The cameras were grinding and nerves tensed for the final swoop, when a pilot erred, a flashing sun ray blinded, or a vagrant air current played a role as a messenger of death.  No one lived to tell why it was.  Suddenly the planes whipped together almost head-on.  Wings splintered, crumpled and folded back.  Cabins ground together, telescoped.  Gasoline tanks burst and flared.  In the twinkling of an eye the combined wreckage shot seaward with the speed of a projectile.  Three bodies were catapulted from the flame-spewing hulks during the hissing plunge, and fell into the water away from the volcanic spout of spray, fire and smoke that marked the crash of the planes on the surface.  Within a few minutes only a thin film of oil, flattening out the white-topped waves bore evidence of the tragedy.  No more bodies appeared and no wreckage came to the surface.”  (Oakland Tribune (CA).  “Divers Hunt 7 Victims of Plane Crash,” Jan 3, 1930, 1.)

Sources

National Fire Protection Association. “Airplane Fire Record.”  Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 25, No. 3, January, 1932, pp. 303-315.

Oakland Tribune, CA. “Divers Hunt 7 Victims of Plane Crash,” 1-3-1930, p. 1. Accessed at:  http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=31833748