The Sun Valley Mall Plane Crash Disaster 1985

The in-depth story of the Sunvalley Mall Plane Crash Disaster 1985.

It’s just two days before Christmas in 1985, and a thick cloud of fog rolls down over the Californian city of Concord in Contra Costa County. Through the mist and darkness, two flashing red lights are seen in the sky. A plane appears, descending toward the Buchanan Field Airport's runway on the city's western outskirts. Weather conditions are far from ideal for flying, but behind the controls of the twin-engine Beechcraft 95-A55 Baron aircraft is an experienced pilot.
Seconds after, a loud explosion shakes the neighbourhood, followed by a ball of fire rising 40 feet into the air. The plane crashes into the skylight of the Sun Valley Mall and creates havoc inside.

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We reveal the world's darkest and greatest disasters all based on true stories.
This disaster documentary is inspired by the fantastic "Fascinating Horror".

[themirrorsofmymind]

The fact that other shoppers and mall workers put the burn victims in the fountain and Sears used ice to soothe their injuries has me in tears... They really tried to help as best they could!

[SeventhSwell]

Oh my goodness, somebody finally covered this one. I spent a lot of time in this mall as a kid and remember this well. A family member was actually in Macy's when this happened. I wish it had never happened but I'm glad it's not forgotten yet.

[saragrant]

This truly was a horrible tragedy. That poor mother who survived but lost her baby boy… I couldn’t imagine the grief and pain.

[robbb]

My stepdad, brother, and I headed out to that mall on that night. We told our mom we were going there. As we started to drive away, we decided that the mall would probably be a zoo and we headed to Walnut Creek instead. We had no idea what was going on at Sun Valley until we were listening to the radio headed back home. We got home to my mom freaking out because she thought we were at the mall.

[jakebower]

My dad was working at a toy store in this mall when this happened. I remember him telling me the story almost every time we went as a family.

[bexabunny]

Omg! I was working at Macys that night. It was so scary. All we were told was to “stay with our cash registers “… hours later they allowed us to go home. It was quite a scene outside that night. Much later we were allowed to walk into the mall. It was so eery and creepy. Dark and burnt out. What a terrible night

[angelaflood]

I knew Pam when I was five. She lived across the street from me and we did everything together. She was amazing, even at that young age. A very compassionate child. I wish she had had more of years to her life. I knew she had passed in this event. I had no idea how horrific it was for her.

[lostvictims]

In remembrance to the victims:
Pilot James Mountain Graham, 67
Passenger Brian Ward Oliver, 23
Passenger John Frederick Lewis, 48

And those on the ground:
Pamela Joy Stanford, 22
Alexander Luong, 14 months
Chandrika K. Shah, 49
Patricia Joanne Larson, 45

[gobrookle]

7 people dead is lower than expected. The evening 2 days before Christmas?! This could have been a lot worse.

[altarwall]

I know this is a small detail, but I really appreciate that you use actual subtitles. It's much easier to understand and keep up with these as opposed to the auto-generated ones.

[hunterwise]

I know they would have found this out by an autopsy but the “garbled speech” along with the almost immediate steep decline sounds like he had a heart attack/stroke or aneurism. Nevertheless, thank you so very much for your great videos and incredible content....

[christianporter]

Unfortunately, I knew a girl that was horrifically burned in this incident 😢 However, she had the fortitude of someone ten times her age and pulled through!

[dougstephens]

I was there and I saw things no 15 year old should see, smell, the heat, and it has left an everlasting trauma deep in my soul.... It was horrible.

[kevinblatter]

My sister was working in the Mall at the time this happened. It was tragic and horrible, but the bystanders did work together to help as much as they could.

[Polymathically]

I grew up in the Bay Area in the 80s and 90s and have been to that mall several times, so I was pleasantly surprised to see someone finally cover this. It's an often overlooked bit of history.

[tandarat]

I worked at Sears. I was off that day, but was at the mall with my friend that night to finish up Christmas shopping. I remember it was a stinking cold, damp night with a heavy marine later and light mist with fog starting to develop. We had stopped at the upstairs breakroom at Sears for a snack from the vending machine and debated crossing the mall to get a tee shirt for a friend in Canada or just heading to the mall down the street to finish shopping. We decided to leave because it was 8:30 and the other mall closed at 9pm. We left, got our other shopping done, and were at the stop light that headed toward Sunvalley and the freeway when ambulance after ambulance raced by. I commented that it must be a really bad accident on the freeway. I think we counted 13 ambulances. I'm sure there were many more that arrived from the other street that borders the mall as well as the freeway.

When we got to my friend's house, her mom came racing out in a panic asking if we were ok. We were confused, and she told us what happened, telling us a plane had crashed into Sears, which scared me since I knew so many people who worked there and it was the last place we had been before leaving for the Willows. There was a lot of confusion immediately after the accident and I guess at least one tv station reported the plane hit Sears.

It was a crazy night.

Sears was the only store that opened the following day, and I had to work that day. I worked in the Men's department, which was right next to the opening to the mall. I was disgusted that Sears was so greedy that they opened their doors (I can't remember if Penney's - at the opposite end - did too, but I think they didn't, at least not right away). I was then disgusted by how many people came to gawk throughout the day, even though there was nothing to see as they had blocked it off with black canvas and plywood walls. What finally sent my blood boiling was when the store manager sent over the popcorn cart to sell the gawkers snacks while they stared through the locked gate and took snapshots. I also heard (though didn't witness) that some poor slob was sent to wander around the crowd hawking Sears credit and discover cards (which just came out that year and were Sears' attempt to break into the national credit card game). The store's willingness to profit off of the tragedy still irks me to this day.

One of my coworkers also worked at Macy's and was working the perfume counter when the plane crashed. She said there was a stampede of people, many injured, some on fire. She remembered one woman in particular whose hands were completely engulfed in flames, screaming as she ran. She was traumatized, and had to endure people asking if any of us witnessed the crash for weeks. My hand was in a cast at the time and I was constantly asked if I got hurt in the crash. It drove me nuts and I felt so bad for my coworker who had to relive everything. Other Sears coworkers were there that night, too, but didn't have injured running through the store. They helped evacuate people and helped to bring supplies to paramedics, who were overwhelmed.

There were so many rumors flying around, too. (Pun not intended - sorry about that) The pilot was on coke. The passengers were dealers. They were transporting drugs. The pilot did it intentionally. He was angry about something. He was suicidal. He wasn't supposed to be flying due to health. It was crazy. No one knew what to believe.

I was a little freaked out that if we had gone to the last store (at the other end of the mall) we would most likely have been passing Macy's right as the plane hit.

I was just at Sunvalley today with my daughter. She is a little older than I was when this happened, and I guess that plus the crash just outside Buchanan airport earlier this week brought it all back.

As a quick and strange epilogue, the man who played Santa that night was injured but survived. Several years later he was arrested for cp and cm.

[jeremyolson]

As a burn victim myself that suffer third-degree burns to over 50% of my back from gasoline you do not ever put water on a burn victim you will actually introduce bacteria into the wound unless you’re putting them out because they’re on fire keep water away from open burns

[ZombieSazza]

You can be extremely well trained but spatial disorientation can still confuse you, it’s pretty insidious that way.

[vegon.begone]

I'm in tears by how regular people, who are also victims, come together and try to save and aid people who were more injured. People can do great things.

[pickupthephonem]

1:34 i’ve gone to this mall my whole life and there are zero traces of this accident. there’s not even a little memorial. had i not found your channel, i would’ve never known this happened!