On the 24th of September, 1972, the Golden West Sport Aviation Air Show was in full swing at
Sacramento Executive Airport in Sacramento, California. Thousands of aviation enthusiasts
had gathered to see aircraft (including military and experimental models) exhibited on the ground.
The show came to an abrupt halt, however, when one aircraft
leaving the show failed to take off at the end of the runway,
and instead plowed through a fence, across a road, and directly into a crowded ice cream parlor.
Farrell's was a chain of ice cream parlors founded in Portland, Oregon, in 1963. At its peak there
were 120 outlets across the United States. Shops were known for their lively atmosphere:
staff would sing songs and give children free ice cream on their birthdays, and every venue
had a self-playing piano along with several other instruments which could be wheeled out to add to
the raucous fun. The biggest sundaes on offer were delivered on stretchers borne by multiple servers.
A joke menu offered to visitors who were worried about eating too much ice cream declared that,
"Everything worth eating has calories," and advised consuming, "a glass of steam," so that
they would have something to blow off. This lively atmosphere made the chain a hit with families,
and so it expanded throughout the 1960s. In 1969 a Farrell's was added to the Crossroads
Shopping Mall in Sacramento. One small objection was raised: a sign for the
parlor was slightly too tall, breaking the recommended height limit for the location.
The height limit existed because the mall was across the road and directly in line
with a runway for Sacramento Executive Airport. However, this objection didn't amount to anything.
Those in charge concluded that since the mall itself already broke the height limit,
and it hadn't caused any problems, the sign would present no additional hazard.
For several years the Farrell's at Crossroads operated without incident...
until on the 24th of September, 1972, the Golden West Sport Aviation Air Show came to town.
This popular show exhibited a number of military aircraft, including a privately owned Canadair
Sabre Mark V. This fighter jet had done its time in the military and had since been sold as surplus
to a private owner, who used it as a promotional tool and regularly entered it in air shows.
Richard Bingham, an experienced pilot with a history of flying many different kinds of jet, had
been hired to pilot the plane on this occasion, and felt that he had mastered the controls after a
few one-hour practice flights. At around 4:30pm, with most of the air show over and done with,
Bingham moved the plane into position ready to take off for the flight back to its home
base. When permission was granted for him to launch, Bingham trundled off down the runway,
gathering speed. Witnesses report the plane wobbling uncertainly as it accelerated.
One witness, just 12 years old at the time, knew instantly that it would not take off...
but it seems that the pilot did not. The plane continued to gather speed before attempting
to take flight at an impossibly steep angle. After rearing up from the tarmac only briefly
it slammed back to the ground, plowed off the end of the runway and tore through a chain-link fence.
Now completely out of control, the aircraft cut across a highway, slamming into and destroying a
passing car in the process. Fuel tanks on the wings ruptured, creating massive fireballs.
It cut a swathe through the car park outside the Crossroads Shopping Center and then, still
at high speed, slammed directly into Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor. The result was instant carnage. Fire
from the remaining fuel consumed the property, which contained around 100 people at the time.
Walls collapsed, glass shattered, and detritus from the plane cut through the crowded venue.
In the immediate aftermath of the accident many people rushed across from the air show to the
site of the crash to try and help. Among these were Mr and Mrs Irwin, a couple in their 60s who
believed - incorrectly - that their grandchildren were at the Crossroads Mall. As they rushed across
the road to look for the children they were hit by a truck, and Mrs Irwin was killed.
Unusually for a disaster of this magnitude the pilot survived. Richard Bingham was pulled from
the wreckage with multiple broken bones, conscious but distraught. As he was carried away he
apologized profusely and begged his rescuers to help get victims out of the wreckage.
Rescuers descended on what was left of the parlor. Pickup and fire trucks from the airport were on
location almost instantly, with at least one truck deliberately crashing through the airport fence
in order to take the most direct possible route to the accident site.
Though many were pulled from the wreckage with severe burns,
many more were beyond saving. The final death toll was 22, with a further 28 injured.
Within this statistic are a series of terrible stories. Kerri Francis McCluskey, then just
four years old, lost her twin sister. Another family lost nine of its members in the crash,
leaving just one survivor: an eight-year-old child who had at a stroke lost two parents,
two grandparents, three siblings and two cousins.
An investigation would reveal that the incident was down
ultimately to a combination of pilot error and poor planning. Bingham had tried to take off at
much too steep an angle, which had meant that he never took off at all. Indeed he'd tried to
pull the aircraft up at an angle three times greater than that which he should have done.
While he was inexperienced in the Sabre it wasn't entirely his fault. Investigators found that the
layout of the area around the runway contributed to the accident. It was unusually crowded,
with trees, buildings and water towers looming around the end of an already-unusually-short
runway. This crowded field of view was what had caused Bingham to try and get airborne
so quickly. While Bingham's actions had, in a direct sense, caused the disaster, these
dangerous conditions had been building for years. Permission had been given for obstructions that
were too tall to be built too close to the end of the runway, often using the justification that the
obstructions already there hadn't yet caused any problems. Exceptions were made not just in terms
of zoning but for the aircraft itself. Sacramento Executive Airport wasn't a fit place for a
military jet to take off from, but the Sabre was allowed to do so for the benefit of the air show.
Bingham had been signed off to fly it despite almost no experience,
again in exception to guidelines that should have been considered mandatory.
Following the accident loopholes were closed. No more could military aircraft (even privately
owned ones) fly over densely-populated areas without special permission.
No longer would a pilot with little experience in a given aircraft be permitted to fly it,
even on a one-off basis, without oversight. And no longer would exceptions be made
to the recommended height limits for installations directly outside airports.
Times have changed since 1972. The zoning of the area around Sacramento Executive Airport
is now strictly controlled. Farrell's has now gone out of business, with the last of its parlors
closing in 2019. Richard Bingham, the pilot, never flew again. The Golden West Sport Aviation Air
Show no longer exists but many other air shows are attended by thousands each year. The Crossroads
Mall became Freeport Square Shopping Center. A memorial now stands at the exact spot where the
front door of Farrell's once was. Two plaques are inscribed with the names of those who perished.
In addition to this marker, there is also a living memorial to the disaster:
The Firefighters Burn Institute. For years before the crash firefighters in Sacramento
had been campaigning for the city to address the lack of burn treatment facilities in the area...
but their appeals were ignored, at least until the crash dramatically highlighted the need for better
provision. The institute was founded the very next year. To this day it provides specialist care and
rehabilitation for burns victims, and conducts vital research research that, little by little,
is improving the lives of burns victims not just in Sacramento but all over the world.