While still a sparsely populated speck in the western reaches of Los Angeles County, Calabasas had a curious brush with aviation history when 81 years ago a warplane crash-landed where the city exists today.
From 1941 to 1945, Lockheed Corporation manufactured a total of 10,037 P-38 “Lightning” aircraft at its Burbank headquarters. The versatile P-38s served as fighters, bombers, and reconnaissance planes, and were deployed extensively by Allied forces during World War II. Their deadly effectiveness led the Germans to refer to them as, “Der Gabelschwanz
Teufel” (“The Fork-Tailed Devil”). They were ultimately retired from service in 1949. Only a handful survive in the present day.
U.S. Air Force Colonel Benjamin Scovill Kelsey (1906-1981) was a prominent, mid-20th century aeronautical engineer and test pilot. He was closely involved with the development of the P-38, having been the very first person to fly its prototype.
On April 9, 1943, Kelsey was at Lockheed testing a P-38 (P-38G-10-LO Lightning 42-12937). Flying westward out of Burbank, he encountered trouble when a control lever broke during an attempted high-speed dive from 35,000 feet. The plane’s left wing and tail then detached from the body of the aircraft. Kelsey bailed out as the P-38 entered into an inverted spin and careened to the ground.
An old advertisement for the Lockheed P-38, a versatile fighter-bomber in WWII.
Although the plane was destroyed, Kelsey had the good luck to survive with nothing worse than a broken ankle.
The aircraft landed on the site of the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park in what is now the Craftsman’s Corner section of Calabasas, a tad north of where Parkway Calabasas crosses Interstate 101 today. Fortunately, that area was relatively empty back then; there is no record of any other damage to persons or property.
Coincidentally, the collision occurred just a few blocks away from where Lockheed would one day move its corporate headquarters. Lockheed re-located from Burbank to Calabasas in 1986, and remained here until 1995.
This incident was actually Kelsey’s second aerial accident.
On Feb. 11, 1939, he crashed a P-38 prototype (XP-38) during a test flight on Long Island, New York. Shortly after his Calabasas mishap, Kelsey was deployed to Europe where he flew numerous successful combat missions.
And thus was the extent to which Calabasas territory witnessed any military action during the Second World War.
Many thanks to Calabasas resident Michael O’Leary, who first led me to explore this unusual chapter in local history.