December marks 20th anniversary of Learjet crash in Fresno

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- It was the worst air disaster in the city of Fresno: a Learjet on a military training exercise crash-landed on Olive Avenue right during the lunch hour.

On December 14, 1994, two Learjets were doing training maneuvers with the Air National Guard. All was going well until one of the planes started coming in for a landing at Fresno's airport.

11:41 a.m. It was almost lunchtime at Ewing Elementary School on Olive Avenue just east of Chestnut. The kindergarteners were lining up to get out of school for the day. Teachers Dawn Loyd and Kim Vasquez remember parents had already arrived at the front gate.

Loyd recalls, "We were dismissing our kids and we heard what sounded like a jet plane." Vasquez describes the sound, "It was a screeching metal and it went right over the tops of our classrooms."

Marty McClintock was 8 years old. He was inside his third grade classroom at Ewing and watched from the window as a jet plane flew low across the playground.

"I said, 'hey, there's something in the sky!' And realized there was a big thing of smoke and there was a plane flying across that was flying a little lower," McClintock said.

At 11:44, the pilots declared an emergency.

Sound from the cockpit: "We got an engine fire on the right side too it shows. Do we have any power? I'm not getting any response man... Gears coming down... Pull it in! I'm coming! I'm coming! Jesus Christ."

The pilots frantically pulled the plane up over Ewing Elementary School and tried for a landing on Olive Avenue.

Sound from the cockpit: "Pull up dude.... Full right rudder in.... Oh Christ! C'mon baby... Don't crash on me now."

But the plane did crash. It clipped a light pole at Recreation Avenue and smashed into the Olivewood Apartments. The debris field covered two city blocks.

Pilots Richard Anderson and Brad Sexton died. 21 people on the ground were injured. Every Fresno firefighter and paramedic on duty rushed to the scene -- among them was Bob Watterston.

Waterston recalls the scene: "This main street here, Olive, I'll bet flames were 20 feet high for at least two blocks. The first thing I ran into coming around the corner over there was a jet engine on fire laying in the middle of the street."

What's amazing is when this accident happened it was close to the noon hour on one of the busiest streets in Central Fresno, and yet that day at that time there were hardly any cars on the road.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined the cause of the crash was faulty wiring in the jet. Phoenix Air -- the owner of the plane -- had modified the wiring so it could perform as a chase plane on military missions. In the end, the company paid out millions, including $12 million to Blondy Davis, the 20-year-old woman burned over 60 percent of her body.

Fresno attorney Rick Watters represented Davis. He said, "And Blondy was in her apartment, and she was getting ready to go somewhere and the engine came in to her bathroom while she was getting ready on fire and burned her."

Those at Ewing Elementary School believe pilots Richard Anderson and Brad Sexton took extraordinary measures to avoid the school and set the plane down in the street. The school's library even bears their name. Most of the teachers at the school have retired, the apartment complex has been rebuilt, but the memories of that day will be etched in the minds of Fresnans for a long time to come.