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.
I remember it well.
i was home listening to it with my dad.
a friend of ours was on duty and responding as a chief with ConFire.
What I remember about that crash was that the two passengers were actually trainees and Brian Oliver was actually flying that evening under the instructions of James Graham. Brian was the boyfriend of one of our folk group members at our St Bonaventure’s Church in Danville. I remember he would sometimes be at the church when we were doing practice. His girlfriend was very distraught after the accident. They were a very close couple at the time. I remember Brian mentioning he was taking or was going to take flying lessons. What a tragedy. My good, retired Concord PD friend was just a cadet then. He said it was the worst experience of his life in the PD…it was like a war zone he said.
I was coming into the mall on the opposite end when this plane hit. Smoke was bellowing through the mall and shoppers and friends that I was meeting up with were running my way to escape the smoke.
I was there with some friends that day. We had roamed the mall for hours and decided earlier than usual to head out. I called my father to pick us up which was always at sears he’d drop off and pick us up. We left 2 hrs before it happened. When it hit the news on t.v we were all sitting around eating. It was absolutely crazy because I was just there. I felt so lucky and watched over by the powers that be because had we not left when we did, my friends and I would of been still hanging out at the center of the mall.