 F3H-2N Demon of Fighter Squadron VF-121 in 1956 | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | 4 December 1959 |
| Summary | Mechanical failure |
| Site | Clairemont, San Diego, US |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | McDonnell F3H-2N Demon |
| Operator | United States Navy |
| Flight origin | Miramar Naval Air Station |
| Stopover | Unknown aircraft carrier |
| Destination | Miramar Naval Air Station |
| Crew | 1 |
| Fatalities | 1 (pilot) |
| Survivors | 0 |
The 1959 San Diego F3H crash was the crash of a United States Navy McDonnell F3H-2N Demon in San Diego, California, on 4 December 1959. The pilot, Ensign Albert Joseph Hickman from VF-121, chose not to eject from the stricken aircraft, piloting it away from populated areas of Clairemont, including an elementary school, saving "as many as 700 people" on the ground, according to one estimate. [1][a] The aircraft crashed into a canyon, with the pilot being the sole fatality. Hickman has been memorialized in the naming of an elementary school and a sports complex in San Diego. Several decades later, a similar crash occurred in University City, a neighborhood north of Clairemont.
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