JULIAN’S OWN ‘DEVIL’S TRIANGLE?’

21 Airplane Accidents — 22 Fatalities in Past 20 Years Near Volcan Mountain

by Jim Evans

When two student pilots died after they crashed May 12 in their twin engine Piper Seminole in the Volcan Mountain Wilderness Preserve, just two miles from Julian, Don Madison was disconsolate but not surprised.

After all, the Julian resident has witnessed 15 deaths in the past 10 years as a rural property manager in the area, and he has been first on the scene at several crash sites.

"There isn’t much left to salvage after one of these accidents," Madison said. "It’s almost as though someone opened up a giant trash bag and scattered the remains over several miles of back country. Tragically, there isn’t much hope when you plow into a mountainside at 270 miles per hour."

Officially, there have been 21 wrecks and 22 deaths near the Volcan Mountain area since 1984, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported in a May 12 article. Some of these accidents are still under investigation years later, according to Madison.

"It’s difficult to say exactly what might be causing these accidents, because there are several possible factors that could be involved," Madison said.

"There is definitely a wind-shear factor, with the hot air from the desert mixing with the cold air from the mountains, and the cloud deck creates an obvious problem with visibility.

"Commercial and military aircraft typically fly at a much higher altitude, but the smaller aircraft are generally flying much lower and are more susceptible to these air and climatic conditions.

"One plane involved in a previous accident, as I recall, dropped from an altitude of more than 12,500 feet to less than 7,000 feet in just a matter of minutes and collided with the mountain peak at just less than 5,000 feet. You can get tossed and turned quite a bit up there. And, of course, pilot error is always a factor."

Madison recalled one accident to which he had an eerie connection.

"The sheriff told me that the plane went down with just the pilot, but I had a recurring vision of an injured passenger walking down the road in tattered clothes with a broken arm, looking for help," he said. "I told the sheriff about my vision, but he insisted that there was only one occupant in the plane.

"Sure enough, just a few days later, a young man in tattered clothes with a broken arm wandered into a neighboring residence from that same accident. It was really strange, and I can’t explain it, but it’s so quiet out here that you just develop a sense about some things sometimes."

And what does Madison suggest to reduce the number of aircraft accidents in the area?

"I don’t know," he said. "I’m certainly not an expert in these things, and I’m not a pilot, but it seems to me that, perhaps, there could be a beacon installed on top of the mountain — maybe some kind of a strobe light — that could improve the visibility for pilots of small aircraft. There is already a radio beacon there, but maybe a light would help in case radio frequency malfunctions for some reason.

"I spoke with a visiting movie producer recently about the problem, and he said that he would speak to (Gov.) Arnold Schwarzenegger about it."

More than 200 unexplained incidents involving both aircraft and ocean vessels have been recorded in the Devil’s Triangle (aka Bermuda Triangle) over several centuries, so Julian has a long way to go before achieving that kind of dubious reputation. In the meantime, Madison and his wife Lili can probably expect to see more airplane accidents in the future from their Cedar Mountain Ranch in Julian.

Perhaps the governor will pay a surprise visit to Julian and get to the source of this tragic history before the area becomes known as the "Volcan Triangle."