John Wayne Airport - Aircraft Incidents

Aircraft Incidents

On February 17, 1981, Air California (AirCal) Flight 336 (a Boeing 737-200), flying from San Jose, California, to John Wayne Airport, crashed upon initiating a go-around. The crew was cleared for a visual approach to Runway 19R while the controller had cleared another flight to take off from 19R. Upon realizing the mistake, the controller ordered Air California 336 to go around and the other aircraft to abort its takeoff, which it did. The captain of the landing Air California aircraft delayed the go-around then initiated a gear up procedure before a positive rate of climb was achieved, causing the plane to stall. The 737 then banked left at low altitude causing the left wingtip to make contact with the runway. Then the nose came down and struck the ground and the airplane pirouetted and inverted and skidded down the runway before coming to rest in the margin. A fire started, four passengers sustained minor injuries, and 91 other passengers and 5 crew exited without incident. The aircraft, registration number N468AC, was damaged beyond repair and was written off.

On August 16, 1987, Northwest Airlines Flight 255, (a McDonell-Douglas MD-82) flying from Detroit Metro Airport to John Wayne Airport with an intermediate stop at Phoenix, Arizona, crashed during takeoff from Detroit, killing 154 of 155 passengers and crew on board and two persons on the ground. One of the contributing factors in the crash was the crew's concern about arriving at John Wayne Airport before the 11:00 p.m. commercial airline arrival curfew. The only survivor was a 4 year old girl.

On December 15, 1993, a chartered IAI Westwind business jet carrying two flightcrew members and three passengers (including Rich Snyder, president of In-N-Out Burger), crashed while on approach to John Wayne Airport. All five occupants were killed in the crash. The aircraft, which departed Brackett Field, thirty miles to the north in La Verne, California, followed a Boeing 757 for landing, became caught in the 757's wake turbulence, rolled into a deep descent and crashed near the intersection of State Route 55 and Edinger Avenue. The crash investigation led to the FAA requirement for an adequate period between heavy aircraft and following light aircraft to allow wake turbulence to diminish.