Harrison Ford Plane Crash Jogs Memory

The small plane crash today of actor Harrison Ford near the Santa Monica Airport reminded me of the time I witnessed a plane crash near the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405) in 1989.

A website lists the history of plane crashes from Santa Monica Airport during the past four decades and the one I saw was listed among them:

Oct. 26, 1989: Wheeler Aircraft Co. Express 100 (nonfatal). Experimental Wheeler Express aircraft crashed into three homes on Greenfield Ave. in West Los Angeles, causing a fire. Pilot and passenger injured.

I was heading home from work in the San Fernando Valley and was in bumper-to-bumper traffic when I saw the plane. It appeared to be doing aerobatics and just went down within blocks east of the I-405 and south of the Santa Monica Freeway (Interstate 10).

I was interviewed by one of the L.A. area newspapers about the crash.

"Carmageddon" Weekend

Above, the old Mulholland Bridge.

The old (about 50 years) Mulholland Bridge over the San Diego Freeway (I-405) in Sherman Oaks will be demolished this weekend.

Dubbed "carmageddon," the project is to demolish the bridge so that the freeway can be widened. A ten-mile stretch of the freeway will be closed this weekend from the U.S. 101 Freeway south to the I-10 Santa Monica Freeway. Massive traffic snarls are expected this weekend when the I-405 is closed. A massive media campaign in Los Angeles has been ongoing, trying to keep people from driving in the area during the closure.

This'll be interesting as the San Diego Freeway is the direct route from the San Fernando Valley to Los Angeles International Airport, Westwood/UCLA, West Los Angeles and the beaches. People are being told to use surface streets. Sepulveda Blvd. runs parallel to the San Diego Freeway. That road may be tied up over the weekend. From the San Fernando Valley, other routes into the L.A. basin include Beverly Glen Blvd., Benedict Canyon, Laurel Canyon Blvd., Topanga Canyon Blvd., Malibu Canyon/Las Virgenes Canyon Road and Kanan-Dume Road. U.S. 101 and I-5 freeways also feed into the L.A. basin from the San Fernando Valley.

A new bridge, with new earthquake resistant pillars, will be built at the location.

Luckily for me, I don't have to drive that route until Sunday night when I have to cross the U.S. 101/I-405 interchange to go into Burbank.

I've crossed the old Mulholland Bridge hundreds of times over the years.