Marine Corps Air Station El Toro - Notable Events

Notable Events

  • The MCAS El Toro Air Show took place annually from the 1950s until 1997. It featured the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, as well as the USAF Thunderbirds. It also featured new aircraft that were coming into active service, such as the B-2 stealth bomber. Other displays featured military vehicles. The show also had a large gathering of vendors of military items and memorabilia. The final show in 1997 drew an estimated two million visitors.
  • MCAS El Toro was regularly used for flight operations by Special Air Missions during President Richard Nixon's term in office, in support of the "Western White House", Nixon's home at San Clemente. The final Nixon flights were, first, when he landed there upon resigning the White House in 1974, and again, after his death in 1994, when his body was flown to California for burial. He flew both times in his Air Force One, SAM 27000.
  • On June 25, 1965, a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-135A bound for Okinawa crashed just after takeoff at MCAS El Toro, killing all eighty-five on board.
  • On April 24, 1988, Marine Corps Colonel Jerry Cadick, then commanding officer of MAG-11, was performing a tactical aerial demonstration at the MCAS El Toro Air Show before a crowd of 300,000 when he crashed his F/A-18 Hornet at the bottom of a loop that was too close to the ground. The aircraft was in a nose-high attitude, but still carrying too much energy toward the ground when it impacted at more than 300 mph (480 km/h). Col. Cadick was subjected to extremely high G forces that resulted in his face making contact with the control stick and sustaining serious injury. He broke his arm, elbow and ribs, exploded a vertebra and collapsed a lung. Col. Cadick survived and retired from the Marine Corps. The F/A-18 remained largely intact but was beyond repair.
  • On 2 May 1993, during the 1993 MCAS El Toro airshow, an F-86 Sabre was going engage with a MiG-15 in a mock dogfight when it crashed on the runway. The F-86 pilot, James A. Gregory, died on impact. No one was hurt on the ground. The airshow continued.

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