Since this crash in 1981, the
San Jose Convention Center has been built over the parking lots that the planes original came down in. The convention center opened in 1989. Auzerais Avenue, mentioned in the news article, no longer comes through this area due to new buildings.
Coordinates were taken from the open space behind the old library and between the new convention center.
Report from the San Jose Mercury News, August 18, 1981:
1 killed, 2 hurt as private craft hit near library
A Santa Clara man was killed and two others injured Monday in a San Jose air crash, the first since the air traffic controllers strike began.
The two planes, a Cessna 172 and a Piper Cherokee Arrow, slammed together over downtown San Jose shortly before 1 p.m. and plummeted to the ground, narrowly missing the city's main library and other nearby buildings.
"It's a miracle," San Jose Police Chief Joseph McNamara said. "If the plane had come down a few feet farther toward the library or if there had been any kind of explosion, there'd have been a lot more dead."
The Cessna, which witnesses said dropped like a stone, landed just 75 feet from the main library on Auzerais Avenue and the Piper, which "fluttered like a leaf" smashed into two unoccupied cars in a parking lot 150 feet away.
The planes barely missed high-tension wires, a pizza parlor busy with noontime customers, a used car lot and a gasoline station. Because the library is closed on Mondays, only about 50 employees were working inside and only a few people were eating lunch outside.
"It was just unbelievable," said Joy Brydon, an employee of Carl N. Swenson Co, Inc., which is erecting a building a few blocks away. One plane, she said "was taking a nose dive. The other plane, I saw the wings fall off and it was spiraling to the ground. It's a frightening experience. We're right in the middle of the flight pattern here."
James E. Moses, 47, of Santa Clara was killed. A wing of his Cessna 172 tore from the plane in the collision about 12:50 p.m., sending his single-engine plane spiraling and crashing 2 3/8 miles southeast of San Jose Municipal Airport.
It took firefighters an hour to cut Moses' body free from the wreckage of his plane. He apparently died on impact.
Bruce G. Marlow, 25, of Los Altos and Robert T. Short, Jr. of Mountain View, were injured when the Piper Cherokee Arrow which they were flying fell from the sky after the collision and slammed into a parking lot 25 feet from a house and 150 feet from the Cessna.
A Medevac paramedic who interviewed one of the survivors said the man had told him, "We hit the top of another airplane."
There have been fatal air crashes across the country since the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization strike began on Aug. 3. But "this is the first mid-air collision." since the walkout, said Ira Furman, chief spokesman for the major-crash investigative unit of the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington.
Officials with the Federal Aviation Administration and the NTSB started immediate investigations. Because the collision is the first since the strike, the officials said they were treating it as a major air disaster - not a routine light-plane collision.
It was unknown whether the strike had caused any air traffic problems over San Jose that may have led to the crash. Under FAA rules, the pilots had primary responsibility for keeping their planes separated, although controllers monitor their progress and can warn pilots about dangerous situations.
According to FAA spokesman Dennis Feldman, both planes were in a terminal control area. They "had been in touch with the tower and both had been given landing instructions." he said.
However, Alex Garvis, another FAA spokesman, said, "The tower had cleared the (Cessna) 172 to land and the other plane had not contacted the tower for clearance."
Bernard Berns, principal operations inspector in the flight standards office of the FAA in San Jose, said the Cessna had flown to San Jose from Arizona, apparently with stops between.
The plane is owned by Robert Shook, Saratoga public works director, and his wife Beverly. Shook said the plane was leased to the Wing Nuts Flying Club.
The Piper is owned by the Fremont Aero Club, according to one club official, who said it had taken off from San Jose Municipal Airport.
Marlow, the Piper's pilot, and Short were taken in the same ambulance to San Jose Hospital about 1:25 p.m. Short, whose face and hands were splattered with blood, was treated for abrasions and lacerations, and released shortly before 5 p.m.
At his house, his wife described him as "all right, just bruised." The family said he was sleeping and did not want to be disturbed.
Marlow suffered some sort of fracture in his back, according to Dr. Benjamin T. "Tom" Hafkenschiel.
Both were conscious and talking when admitted, Hafkenschiel said, and had "no major injuries."
The doctor said he was "puzzled" by the lack of more serious injuries.
People who witnessed the crash said both planes seemed to be heading toward San Jose airport in a northerly direction over downtown when they hit.
"I was getting out of the car when I saw what looked like two planes playing around," said Pilar Sierre, 42, of San Jose. "Then I heard a noise like two cars crashing."
After the noise, Sierra said, there were "pieces of metal coming down everywhere."
One of the men injured in the Piper told hospital officials they were at 1,600 feet when, the planes hit. According to Tim Kurreck, a flight instructor at the airport, a normal landing approach would put a plane between 1,500 and 2,000 feet over the library.
Patti Peterson, a library clerk who was parking nearby, said she heard noises in the air "like an engine having trouble, like it was cutting out."
San Jose Police Officer Greg Trapp was sitting in his patrol car at Third and Reed streets while his partner, Jeff Myers, wrote out a traffic citation. Trapp looked toward the sky and reported a commonly voiced description.
"I didn't think it was real. It looked like toy airplanes fluttering down."
He saw one of the Cessna's wings fold and come off. The white plane with blue markings suddenly dropped, spinning around straight toward the ground. "I picked up the radio and put it out as a plane crash."
"The second plane (the Piper) ... fluttered like a leaf," toward the parking lot, he said.
San Jose Fire Capt. Bill Garringer was headed south on Interstate 280 at Bird Avenue when he saw the planes flying over downtown "about 100 to 200 yards apart. One was behind the other heading towards the airport. I kept watching until they actually collided. I saw pieces and parts cartwheeling to the ground. There were no flames or smoke."
The planes came down about 150 feet apart near the intersection of Almaden and Auzarais avenues. The Cessna tore a limb off a tree and landed on the library's back lawn. The Piper slammed on its belly atop a Volkswagen and an Oldsmobile in a parking lot next to a house, and began leaking fuel. Fire officials poured fire retardant chemicals on the fuel and it did not catch fire.
Susan Voth, who was at Gallo's Motors across the street from the library, ran to the Piper when she saw the white plane with blue and black markings crash into the lot. "Gas was dripping out and the passenger was trying to get the pilot's window out and some mechanics in blue overalls showed up and we helped them out of the plane."
White House deputy press secretary Larry Speakes, reached in Los Angeles, said President Reagan, who has fired the striking controllers, had been advised of the collision but "there's nothing we can say until the FAA investigation is completed."
A spokesman for the striking air controllers said the union had a representative on the scene. Ken Huston of the union said he didn't know whether the strike had anything to do with the crash but added, "I think the system was being operated by people who did not have the skills that the journeyman air traffic controllers have."