39-years-ago today, a twin-engine Beechcraft Baron slammed into Concord’s Sunvalley Mall, killing seven people (the pilot, two passengers and four people on the ground). The crash also seriously injured and burned close to 100 Christmas shoppers in the crowded mall. Killed in the plane was the pilot, James Graham, 67, of Oakland, and his passengers, 23-year-old Brian Oliver and 48-year-old John Lewis. In the mall, those who died were 22-year-old Pamela Stanford, 49-year-old Chandrika Shah, 45-year-old Patricia Larson and 14-month-old Alexander Luong, of Concord.
Great video, very informative. I learned some things that I didn’t know. My friend and
I was Christmas shopping at the mall that night, and after buying a few things, we decided
to head over across the street to K-Mart. If we were to hang around the mall for five or
ten more minutes, we would have been there when the plane crashed.
As Maxwell Smart used to say, “missed it by that much.”
I was shopping at Macys that day and left about an hour before the crash. Remember it very well. Such a sad loss.
I worked in the mall that year at Hickory Farms as a cashier and stocker. I also filled in as Santa twice when he called in sick or was late or drunk like Bad Santa.
Santa was AWOL that afternoon so I was asked to fill in. I was about halfway dressed when he showed up and I was sent home and proceeded to ride my bike to where my parents lived, near Northgate HS.
Mom was freaking out when I arrived. She said that “a 727 had crashed into the mall” and that she was worried that I was in the middle of it all.
Obviously it was not as severe as a 727, but pretty horrific nonetheless. I must have just missed the crash by a few minutes. The mall was closed for some time but I did manage to ride back to Sunvalley and wander the mall to see the damage. Heard that Santa had caught fire and dove into the fountain that used to be outside Macy’s but I never confirmed that.