1948 Los Gatos DC-3 crash

Plane crash near Coalinga, California, US February 2020 Accident Los Gatos Canyon Crash Los Gatos Canyon Plane Crash Victims Burial Site.jpg Burial site for the victims of the 1948 Los Gatos Canyon plane crash at Fresno Holy Cross Cemetery January 28, 1948 Fire, originating in the left engine-driven fuel pump Diablo mountains, west of Coalinga, California, United States 36.2366 -120.5849 type:event_region:US-CA inline,title 32 29 3 32 0 FourStar N135FS STT 14Aug2009.jpg A DC-3 similar to the accident aircraft C-47B-40-DK Skytrain NC36480 Oakland, California Burbank, California El Centro, California Airline Transport Carriers(under INS contract) On January 28, 1948, a DC-3 aircraft operated by Airline Transport Carriers with 32 persons on board, mostly Mexican farm laborers, including some from the bracero guest worker program, crashed in the Diablo Range, 20 miles west of Coalinga, California, killing all passengers and crew. The crash inspired the song "Deportee" by Woody Guthrie.Marcum Diana Names emerge from shadows of 1948 crash http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-deportees-guthrie-20130710-dto,0,2642231.htmlstory February 27, 2023 Los Angeles Times September 7, 2013 limited Some of the passengers were being returned to Mexico at the termination of their bracero contracts, while others were undocumented immigrants being deported. Initial news reports listed only the pilot, first officer, stewardess, and an INS guard, with the remainder listed only as "deportees." Only 12 of the victims were initially identified. The Mexican victims of the accident were placed in a mass grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in Fresno, California, with their grave marked only as "Mexican Nationals".http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/03/deportee-farmworkers_n_3861945.html 'Deportees,' 28 Anonymous Mexican Farmworkers Killed In 1948 Plane Crash, Finally Named At Memorial Huffington Post September 3, 2013 March 19, 2014 Wilkey, Robin Accident The Douglas DC-3 aircraft, operated by Airline Transport Carriers, an airline based in Burbank, California, was chartered by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to fly twenty-eight Mexican citizens, who were being deported to the INS Deportation Center in El Centro, California.Kulczyk David Death in California – The Bizarre, Freakish, and Just Curious Ways People Die in the Golden State 2009 Craven Street Books Fresno, CA 978-1-884995-57-6 77 For reasons never explained, pilot Frank Atkinson and co-pilot Marion Ewing took a DC-3 that had seats for only twenty-six passengers (seven hours overdue for a routine and required safety inspection) for the flight, instead of an aircraft certified to carry thirty-two passengers. Arriving in Oakland, California, after a routine flight, the crew was joined by INS guard Frank Chaffin. The flight was to refuel at Burbank, California, before continuing to El Centro. At approximately 10:30am, workers at the Fresno County Industrial Road Camp, located 21 mi km on northwest of Coalinga, California, noticed the DC-3 trailing white smoke from its port engine. The port wing suddenly ripped off, spilling nine passengers out of the gaping hole in the fuselage. The aircraft caught fire and spiralled to the ground near Los Gatos Creek, exploding in a ball of fire. The investigation by the Civil Aeronautics Board discovered that a fuel leak in the port engine's fuel pump had ignited and the slipstream fanned the flames to a white hot intensity. The ensuing fire, acting like a torch, burned through the wingspar and caused the crash.Accident Investigation Report: Airline Transport Carriers, Inc.—Coalinga, California—January 28, 1948 Civil Aeronautics Board 12 August 1948 https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/33393 18 September 2024 10.21949/1500433 https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19480128-0 Airline Transport Carriers Aviation Safety Network 11 December 2020 Initial news reports listed only the pilot, first officer, stewardess, and the immigration guard, with the remainder listed only as "deportees". Only 12 of the victims were initially identified.Fresno Bee Fresno, California February 1, 1948 1 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/26051398/ Victims of Valley's Worst Air Crash The Hispanic victims of the accident were placed in a mass grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in Fresno, California, with their grave marked only as "Mexican Nationals". The grave is 84 by 7 ft m on with two rows of caskets and not all of the bodies were buried the first day, but the caskets at the site did have an overnight guard. Woody Guthrie song, "Deportee" Singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie wrote a poem in 1948 lamenting the anonymity of the workers killed in the crash, identified only as "deportees" in media reports. When Guthrie's poem was set to music a decade later by college student Martin Hoffman, it became the folk song "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)". The song was popularized by Pete Seeger,60th anniversary of "Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee)" Indybay https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/01/30/18475895.php October 16, 2009 and was subsequently performed by Arlo Guthriehttps://www.pandora.com/artist/lyrics/arlo-guthrie/arlo-guthrie/deportees/TRJqgnbrf5tfmjX Deportees Joan Baez, Judy Collins,The UFW: Songs and Stories, Sung and Told by UFW Volunteers http://www.farmworkermovement.us/media/Scott/INTRODUCTIONTOSONGSANDCOMMENTARY(FINAL).pdf#page=10 Farmworker Movement Documentation Project March 19, 2014 Julie Felix, Cisco Houston,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOqjlRsUnBM - YouTube YouTube Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Kelly, Martyn Joseph, The Byrds, Richard Shindell, Billy Bragg and Ani DiFranco among others. Aftermath Cesar Chavez, later to become founder of the United Farm Workers union, learned of the tragic crash while serving in the US Navy, helping convince him that farm workers should be treated "as important human beings and not as agricultural implements".Join UFW President Arturo Rodriguez at memorial dedication for 28 'deportees' Labor Day, Sept. 2 in Fresno: The 'deportees' finally have their names http://www.ufw.org/_board.php?mode=view&b_code=news_press&b_no=14345 Press release United Farm Workers March 19, 2014 August 26, 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20140319233723/http://www.ufw.org/_board.php?mode=view&b_code=news_press&b_no=14345 March 19, 2014 dead The names of all the victims were published in local papers in 1948.'Deportee' Crash http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/Deportee_1948_crash.htm Check-Six.com December 9, 2014 In 2009, writer Tim Z. Hernandez began to seek out the gravesite and those names.https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-deportees-name-read-aloud-20130902-story.html Decades after crash, names of 28 "deportees" are read aloud September 2, 2013 Diana Marcum Los Angeles Times October 27, 2018 With the help of others, by July 2013 all had been identified (some of the names were misspelled in the records), and the money raised for a more fitting memorial.http://latinousa.org/2013/09/13/deportee-plane-2/ Deportee Plane - Latino USA September 13, 2018 latinousa.org en-US Podcast February 18, 2018 On September 2, 2013 (Labor Day), a Deportee Memorial Headstone was unveiled at a mass in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Fresno attended by more than 600.Orozco Ron Fresno memorial unveiled with 'deportee' names from 1948 crash http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/09/02/3475757/fresno-memorial-unveiled-with.html March 19, 2014 https://web.archive.org/web/20131222160311/http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/09/02/3475757/fresno-memorial-unveiled-with.html December 22, 2013 dead The memorial includes all twenty-eight names of the migrant workers, which included three women, and one man born in Spain, not Mexico as widely reported.The People Behind Guthrie's 'Deportee' Verses NPR.org March 28, 2013 https://www.npr.org/2013/03/28/175580934/the-people-behind-guthries-deportee-verses National Public Radio References External links California Aviation Hispanic and Latino Americans Report - Civil Aeronautics Board - PDF Jason Daley: One Man's Search to Find the Families of the “Deportees” in the Famous Woody Guthrie Song Los Gatos DC-3 crash Category:Airliner accidents and incidents in California Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1948 Los Gatos DC-3 crash Category:Aviation accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-3 Category:History of Fresno County, California Monument at the crash site, erected in 2023.