On February 26, 2006, at about 8:30am the Aero Vodochody, L39C, N39DF (Wild Child), crashed into hilly terrain during a low altitude course reversal maneuver northwest of California City, California. The accident occurred during a flight conducted for the purpose of filming a motion picture involving the L39. The experimental category turbojet was owned and operated by Mach 1 Aviation, Universal City, California. The airplane was fragmented upon colliding with terrain and thereafter was consumed by fire. The airline transport certificated (front seat) pilot, and the commercial certificated (rear seat) pilot were killed. The flight originated from Van Nuys, California, at about 7:30am.

This photo of N39DF "Wild Chiild" landing at the Van Nuys Airport was taken by Matt Wallman on 2/25/06, the day before the accident.

Following Tom G to the place we will start the hike from after meeting him out by the highway.

A few days before this, Tom Gossett emailed me and asked if I would like to join him on a search for a L-39 near the town of Mojave. He had some info that should get us close to the crash site's location. I had this plane on my list for about a year, but never tried looking for it. I had the NTSB report, but unlike most of the later reports, this one didn’t have the GPS coordinates. Also being a recent accident (2/26/006) I figured that it would have been cleaned up to a micro site. I didn’t have any plans plus I haven’t hiked with Tom for awhile so I said okay.

Heading off in the direction we hope to find the L-39's crash site in which I'm thinking is only going to have tiny pieces remianing.

We came upon this wash that was full of scattered wreckage. Really surprised me that it wasn't all taken way after the accident investigation.

Looking up the wash.

Panel with an antenna. This part is from the bottom side of the fuselage.

Piece of the airframe with some purple, red and yellow trim.

Lot of wire and an oxygen bottle.

Part of a belt.