1972 Sacramento Canadair Sabre accident
Spectrum Airlines Canadair MARK 5 · Runway overrun on takeoff due to pilot error
From Sacramento Executive Airport to Oakland, CA
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown
- Event fatalities
- 22 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 1
- Survivors
- 1
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 28 · 27 on the ground
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Canadair MARK 5
- Aircraft type
- Canadair MARK 5
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N275X
- Operator
- Spectrum Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sacramento Executive AirportTo Oakland, CA
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General aviation (fixed base operator)
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Stall/mush
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Airports/airways/facilities › Other
- Pilot in command › Failed to obtain/maintain flying speed
- Pilot in command › Improper operation of flight controls
- Pilot in command › Lack of familiarity with aircraft
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On September 24, 1972, a privately owned Canadair Sabre Mk. 5 fighter jet, piloted by Richard L. Bingham, failed to take off while leaving the "Golden West Sport Aviation Air Show" at Sacramento Executive Airport in Sacramento, California, United States. The airplane crashed into a Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor, killing 22 people on the ground and injuring 28, including the pilot.
Accident
The crash occurred on Sunday, the second day of the air show, at approximately 4:24 pm PDT. The Canadair Sabre failed to gain sufficient altitude upon takeoff from runway 30, with eyewitnesses suggesting the nose was over-rotated. The F-86 Sabre has a dangerous and often fatal handling characteristic upon takeoff if the nose is raised prematurely from the runway. This handling characteristic of the F-86 was acknowledged from the early 1950s.
The aircraft overran the runway, struck an earthen berm, and ripped through a chain link fence. Two external underwing fuel tanks ruptured and ignited upon impact with the fence, creating a massive fireball. The plane continued across Freeport Boulevard, crashing into a moving car, and struck a Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor at around 150 mph. Occupants of the parlor included the Sacramento 49ers junior football team.
Twenty-two people on the ground were killed; ten adults and twelve children. An eight-year-old survivor of the accident lost nine family members: both parents, two brothers, a sister, two grandparents, and two cousins. A family of four also died in the accident. Two people were killed in the car struck on Freeport Boulevard. Immediately after the crash, an elderly couple trying to cross the street to the crash site were struck by a vehicle, killing the wife. Had either the external fuel tanks not ruptured prior to impact or the aircraft not been slowed by hitting the moving car and other vehicles parked in front of the restaurant, the accident could have claimed many more lives. Bingham, the pilot, suffered a broken leg and arm.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1972 Sacramento Canadair Sabre accident” (revision 1363585473, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
NTSB remarks
OVERROTATION OF ACFT DUE INADEQUATE PLT PROFICIENCY & MISLEADING VISUAL CUES.HIT ICE CREAM PARLOR.
NTSB's remark from its 1962–1981 archive, as recorded (abbreviated, at most 98 characters): the archive has no narrative
Sources
Wikipedia article: 1972 Sacramento Canadair Sabre accident
- Revision
- 1363585473 · 2026-07-11 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q16984281
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record
- Event ID
- 19720924P044832
- Case number
- Unknown
- Dataset
- historical-pre1982
- Source SHA-256
- abe1a933b4b73583d61684309f7f0610c281e3c1de3537c6471bf2a98ba6481d
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "1972 Sacramento Canadair Sabre accident" (page 39852845, revision 1363585473); merged with NTSB case NTSB19720924P044832 (PRE1982 tblFirstHalf (one row per aircraft, grouped by date, place and time))
- Date
- NTSB record NTSB19720924P044832: PRE1982 DATE_OCCURRENCE
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record NTSB19720924P044832
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record NTSB19720924P044832: PRE1982 REGIST_NO, ACFT_MAKE, ACFT_MODEL; gaps from Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- NTSB record NTSB19720924P044832: operated under Part 91: General aviation (fixed base operator)
- Fatalities
- NTSB record NTSB19720924P044832: PRE1982 TOTAL_ABRD_FATAL of each aircraft, plus people on the ground and others outside the aircraft
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record NTSB19720924P044832: events.inj_f_grnd
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (4)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "1972 Sacramento Canadair Sabre accident" and NTSB case NTSB19720924P044832, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this US event the NTSB's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- From NTSB's 1962-1981 archive (PRE1982), which holds at most a short remark (98 characters, abbreviated) instead of a narrative; the accident type, phase of flight, causes and conditions are NTSB's codes, decoded as the archive defines them.
- Reviewed means this record passed the site's consistency check, not that it was checked against a narrative or report - there is none to check against.
- The operation category is mapped from the archive's operator and operation codes and has not been reviewed.