In 1957, a Douglas DC-7B operated by Douglas Aircraft Company was involved in a mid-air collision with a United States Air Force Northrop F-89J Scorpion and crashed into the schoolyard of Pacoima Junior High School, in California. By the next day, seven people had died and 75 were injured. An 12 year-old boy died the following day on February 2.
Following the collision, Curtiss Adams, the radarman aboard the eastbound twin-engine F-89J Scorpion, was able to bail out of the stricken fighter jet and, despite incurring serious burns, parachuted to a landing onto a garage roof in Burbank, breaking his leg when he fell to the ground. The fighter jet’s pilot, Roland E. Owen, died when the aircraft plummeted in flames into La Tuna Canyon.
The collision was blamed on pilot error after the two planes converged in the air.