Vincent Gap To The Site Of The Glider Crash (And The Two Amazing Guys Who Survived It)

[David Martin]

A couple of months ago, I was reading old trip reports on this forum and when I came across Bill's post about a crash site near the Bighorn Mine, I almost fell over. In it Bill described walking to the mine, scrambling down the steep slope to the creek bed (which sounded pretty hairy), and then discovering the remains of a plane wreck while heading up Vincent Trail from Prairie Fork. A few other members chimed in with details about the accident and the craft itself. In the back and forth, many facts behind the accident were revealed. The big surprise was the names of the two men that survived it — Jimmy Webb and Henry Diltz. Both were very familiar to me and if you’re a boomer/geezer, they might also have been part of your cultural coming-of-age.

Jimmy Webb, who piloted the glider that day, wrote some of the biggest rock and pop hits in the 60’s and 70’s. He’s probably best known for his classic compositions for the late Glen Campbell, like By The Time I Get To Phoenix, Wichita Lineman, and Galveston. Other famous songs were MacArthur Park (about a girlfriend he used to meet at that park near downtown L.A.), and Up Up And Away. But there were many, many more. He was a very prolific song writer.

Henry Diltz, Jimmy's passenger the day of the accident, was one of the best known rock photographers of that era. He shot album covers for Crosby Stills and Nash, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, the Doors, the Eagles, the Monkees, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, Richard Pryor, Jimi Hendrix, James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, etc. He was the official photographer at Woodstock.

I've worked in recording and the music business all my life so I was aware of both men, and was lucky enough to work with Jimmy Webb at his Encino home studio in the 1970’s, on a TV special that involved some big names. (The Scrapbook section of my site has a lot of stories from my career, but not that one. I might add a page about that project and if I do, I’ll post the link here.) Coincidentally I had another connection to Jimmy Webb — when growing up, my niece’s husband’s family had been friends with him and Glen Campbell, who was best man at their wedding.

Despite my familiarity with those guys I had no idea they’d been in a plane crash together, so naturally when I read about that on this forum, I was really surprised. In searching the web, I found several accounts of what happened. They’ve each discussed it several times, but the best account is this podcast interview with Henry Diltz from 2020.

Here’s a short summary of the accident, mostly taken from the podcast. The two were friends, and had flown together before. Jimmy Webb was about to release a new album, and for the cover they decided they'd try taking photos of the San Gabriels from the air. They headed out of Llano on February 6, 1974 in a Schweitzer SGS-2-32. Henry Diltz brought a still camera, and an Arriflex 35mm motion picture camera. They flew out over the mountains but got caught in a downdraft, and found themselves descending into the bowl below Vincent Gap. Unable to catch an up current, they prepared to crash land. Jimmy had been taught that if crash landing in a forest, it was actually best to aim between two trees and try to sheer off both wings to avoid the fuselage spinning around on impact, and that’s what he did.

They both blacked out after the crash but upon coming to, realized they had survived with just minor injuries. As Henry laughingly recalls in the podcast, they sparked up a joint to celebrate their good luck. Meanwhile, the people back at base camp became alarmed by their disappearance and sent out a Bell rescue copter. The pilot found them in short order and hauled them out in two separate flights. He told them that this was one of the few rescue missions he’d flown in those mountains, where crashes were almost always fatal.

This felt like a destiny thing, and I really wanted to go see the crash site. As you folks know, Dima’s very interested in crash site explorations so I messaged him, proposing that we hike there ASAP. He was into it and knew the area, but the weather didn’t cooperate. Snow and road closures caused us to cancel twice, but we finally headed out there with my wife and Kurt, my weekend hiking buddy on February 7 — 47 years and one day after the accident. Angeles Crest was closed beyond Grassy Hollow so that’s where we parked, and began our walk. The highway was clear, but starting down the trail at Vincent Gap just after 10, there was about a foot of snow. Dima warned us that time would be tight and we might need to abort if the trail was too sketchy, but we headed down, grateful for his tips on walking in the snow, which I hadn’t done for a long time. The powder showed recent footprints from two or three other people,but they soon ended. Past the junction for Bighorn Mine Dima had us veer right for a “surprise”, which turned out to be Vincent’s cabin. It was a little amazing that the structure was relatively intact and un-vandalized, with old tin cans and such left in place. I later read that he hid out there for many years after killing 3 people in Arizona. It’s interesting that so many places in the region bear his name. I guess cancel culture has spared him, at least so far.

We continued down the trail towards the creek bed, the trail getting easier as the snow thinned out. Nearing the coordinates that Bill gave for the crash site, the canyon floor opened up and we could see why Mr. Webb chose that spot to crash land. And then there it was, showing a little more damage and graffiti than the photos I’d seen here. Dima observed that not only were the flight controls and instruments missing, but also the seats. Someone had built a nice looking fire ring, which seemed to have gotten some use.

(I could swear that when I began looking into this I came across an article or post about a pair of lost or exhausted hikers using wing or fuselage sections as an overnight shelter, but I can’t find that now. Does that story ring a bell with anyone?)

My photos off the wreckage aren’t great…the sun’s angle was difficult and we didn’t have much time down there. Other people who’ve written here about visiting the site have posted better shots.

I want to return and check out the mine one day. Actually, Kurt and I will approaching the Vincent trailhead from the west as we continue our big San Gabriels loop, depending on closures and weather, so we might be back before long.

[Gene]

It's a small world indeed, thank you for sharing the story.

[dima]

This was cool. Thanks for getting me out there, David! The glider is now a pretty nice campsite: the wings are propped up to serve as a good windbreak (with p-cord guy-wires even!) and there's a good fire ring in the middle.

[Sean]

Thanks for the story. It's a good thing he lit the joint after the crash and not before. It must have taken his full concentration to land between two trees.

[tekewin]

Great story!