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San Antonio, TX Navy Jet Trainer Crash, Jun 1970
Posted July 1st, 2009 by June
Jet Crash Claims 4
San Antonio, Tex., (AP)-An engine failure sent a Navy jet trainer plane crashing into two houses and caused four deaths Wednesday night.
About a dozen other persons suffered injuries but only four stayed in hospitals overnight.
Police said a reports of a fifth death in the fiery crash proved in error.
Navy officials said the F9 Cougar jet was making a practice instrument approach to Kelly Air Force Base when it lost power and nosedived two miles north of the runway. It his in Southwest 41st Street on the city’s west side and bounded onto two home on Luz Avenue, burning both.
Ed King, 16, sitting outside with several friends, said, “It must have missed us by not more than 10 feet. It started going up and down just before it crashed.”
Rudy Vela, who lives five doors down from where the plane struck, told of hearing “something like a rocket coming down then an explosion” while he was still indoors.
“I went outside and saw all the houses on fire,” Vela said. “My little girl was screaming because she didn’t know what was going on…I ran to the corner and saw the plane on fire. The fire was tremendous. You couldn’t get close.”
There were two men aboard the plane. The Navy identified them as Lt. (j.g.) Wesley B. Duerr, 25, an instructor from Camp Springs, Md., and Lt. (j.g.) John B. Weller, 25, a student pilot from Ronvent, N.J. They were based at Chase Field, a naval auxiliary air station at Beeville, Tex.
The other dead were civilians--Saul Martinez, 44, and his son Eduardo, 23, newly returned from fighting in Vietnam.
Bodies of the fliers were found in the street and those of Martinez and his son in their home.
Police said the discovery of a dead cat in a partly melted car, parked beside one of the houses, apparently led to the false report of a fifth death.
Mark Latson, 12, dashed from his home with clothing in flames moments after the plane struck. Hospital attendants described his condition as grave.
Most of the other injured suffered burns while fighting the fire, officers said, and were dismissed after emergency treatment.
Abilene Reporter News, Abilene, TX 26 Jun 1970
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Transcribed by June. Thanks June!
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plane crash
hello.....i was there when it happened......i will never forget that night and the little boy that was burned...i was 9 years old..it was a tragic event and the four men who lost their lives that night....it has never left my mind and the friends i left behind when my family moved away....i lost contact with the nieboughborhood,but not the accident.....i remember that it was chaotic and the traffic everyone who were their out of curiousty....it was all too real....i hope everyone recovered from their lost...
Plane crash in San Antonio 1970
Hello, my name is Nicole Cortez. I am 31 years old, I will be 32 tommorrow the 25th. I was not born when this happened, but since I was a child I remeber saying where the plane crash was, and telling my family that me and my sister where hiding under the kitchen table. My sister had run away from me to get my stuffed animal because I was scared and then came back and told me everything was going to be okay..then I heard almost like a loud train sound, and I felt the ground shake and that's all I remember. I think the little girl I think I was must have been about 6 years old or so. My family would always say, you were not even born at that time..I looked up all the deaths, and it does not show any little girls dying at all. I also remember or seeing my aunts best friend Elmira Sierra and her sister Yolanda, they lived on Durant. (I call them Tias because they are close to the family) They even said that they remember it, but they know that I was not born. I was born in 1979. I just want some closure on this, I cannot find anything in the public library or the internet, and my aunts dont remember any little girls dying in the crash either..you being 9 years old at the time, I would just like to ask you if you remember any little girls around that age that might have perished in the crash, and if you do, do you know their names by chance?? Thank You, Nicole Cortez