WW2 Luftwaffe Aircraft Shot Down Over Los Angeles

[MIflyer]

Well, not quite.

This WW2 German marked SNJ-5 made an emergency landing on the 101 Freeway in the Western San Fernando Valley yesterday.

The aircraft apparently was based at Van Nuys airport. The pilot said the engine quit and he made a landing on the freeway. As you can see from the photos that area is quite hilly and offers very few places to land an airplane.

The airplane apparently bounded on landing and the left wing ended up on the concrete center divider. A fuel leak apparently developed and the aircraft caught fire.

The freeway was closed as a result and traffic was backed up for 30 miles or more. He may have not been shot down but I'll bet there are a lot of commuters that were wishing they'd had a gun handy.

 

[fubar57]

Brutal. Lucky pilot, not so much the aircraft

 

[MIflyer]

He said he picked a stretch of freeway that was empty of cars. He should have been able to land Okay on a stretch that wide, but when he bounced I guess he basically lost control and it hit the center Jersey barrier.

Camarillo Airport, the former Oxnard AFB, is maybe 10 miles further down the road, and it's a real warbird haven. Too bad he could not have made it that far.

Reportedly the airplane was painted that way for a movie.

 

[FZ26000]

... this bird has nothing to do with a German AC, although painted like it were, probably to "play" in a film, as it is a Texan T6 training bird ...

 

[GrauGeist]

There's an association of T-34s that's very active out of Camarillo and El Cajon and they're all painted in various schemes from various time periods (WWII, Korea, Vietnam, etc.) including Allied/Axis.
Julie Clark's T-34 is even sporting Air Force One's scheme.