By CJ Dablo
-Staff Writer-
It rained on Jan. 12, 1954. Perhaps the lack of visibility from the storm clouds could have at least partially explained away the horrific accident that day when an Air Force pilot commandeering a jet made a fateful left turn on his approach toward Long Beach Airport and then crashed into a number of Signal Hill homes. At least eight individuals ultimately died, and families who lived near 19th Street and Raymond Avenue were devastated.
According to historical newspaper accounts published in the Press-Telegram, the F-86 Sabre jet was en route from Williams Air Force Base in Arizona. The jet approached a tower at the Long Beach Airport, and then the pilot inexplicably turned left towards Signal Hill. According to the newspaper, his plane was expected to turn right. The Sabre crashed to the ground, clipping through trees and tearing through homes along Raymond Avenue. It skidded about 400 feet before it smashed into a duplex.
“The plane exploded with this impact and disintegrated into a roaring path of flame,” wrote one Press-Telegram reporter.
The news reports from that era listed the victims. The pilot, among several other individuals, was killed. Others later died as a result of their injuries. One man suffered from a heart attack and passed away. At least one victim was decapitated in the crash. A four-month-old toddler died days later from burns to his body.
Alfred and Jeannette Sirignano are among those who remember the aftermath of the accident. Former Signal Hill residents, the couple witnessed the destruction up-close.
Alfred and Jeannette were only dating at that time, but Alfred, who lived nearby, had been taking his then-girlfriend Jeannette to work and sharing his car with her. That Tuesday, he was late, and Jeannette had to end her work day a little later to make up for lost time. It was a good day to return home a little late.
Speaking from their home in Apple Valley, Alfred and Jeannette recalled in a telephone interview the events of that day when Jeannette tried to make it back to her home in Signal Hill.
She had to park a block away from her home that afternoon, and she saw the smoke and fire on her street. A policeman told her that they were trying to find the blonde woman who lived in one particular house. He pointed out the home behind the duplex that had been struck by the plane. It took a little while for Jeannette, who had just dyed her hair black, to convince the officer that she was the same woman for whom they were searching. They didn’t recognize her. Jeannette said that the motor of the plane landed on her driveway and caught fire. Her home was burned. She lost everything.
“I was so stunned,” Jeannette said, thinking of her friends who lived in the duplex and another girl who might have also been among the victims of the crash.
Alfred acknowledged that his wife was lucky that day. Had she arrived home 15 to 20 minutes earlier, she could have been another victim killed in the fire. He was still at work at the time of the accident, and he didn’t know until later that Jeannette’s home was in the path of the crash. He was grateful that Jeannette wasn’t hurt, but he also realized how the neighborhood had been deeply shattered by the wreck.
“We were really upset because our friends and neighbors were killed!everybody was young, relatively young, in their 20s,” he said, adding that a whole family, including a mother, father, and a daughter were also killed. “It was devastating!because we knew them personally.”
The crash also killed a young boy. The Sirignanos believe that 11-year-old Stephen Louis Shoup, known by his nickname Spud, was on his bike, either on his way home or making his way to the grocery store, when the plane crashed. His father, Morris Shoup, served as a Signal Hill councilmember and mayor. Spud Field in Signal Hill Park is named after Stephen.
Jeannette, now 86, said she doesn’t really want to remember that day. She and Alfred, who is now 88, were in their mid 20s at the time of the crash.
However, Jeannette remembers that, in the days following the crash, there were acts of kindness from friends, neighbors and Alfred’s mother as Jeannette tried hard to move on with her life. Alfred’s mother loaned money to help pay for Jeannette to move into a motel room. Neighbors gave her clothes. Jeannette carried on. The day after the crash, she returned to her job as a cosmetologist. Eventually, she moved into another home.
The crash was a moment in time that is slowly being forgotten as residents age or move away from the area. Young residents in Signal Hill may only think of Spud Field as the place to play a soccer game, not as a place which memorializes the kid on his bike who didn’t get a chance to live a full, happy life in the city.
Spud Field is an open grassy area in the center of town, close to the civic center. On a hot afternoon in May on the field, a soccer coach gathered his teen players together for announcements as more parents with their kids joined the crowd. For those kids, it wasn’t a day to think of rain, fire, wrong turns, or loss. It’s a place for the young and young-at-heart to enjoy the sunshine, the kind of place Spud might have liked.
