On September 9, 2010 at about 6:15 pm PDT a massive natural gas explosion and fire occurred in a residential neighbourhood of San Bruno, California just south of San Francisco. The blast area is just to the west of San Francisco International Airport (KSFO). A number of air traffic controllers and pilots witnessed the explosion and inferno. Almost immediately, rotary and fixed wing aircraft were requesting clearance to do air work over the site.
See the following for stories, video and over 100 photos:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/10/BAVQ1FBPMD.DTLI've edited down the archived recordings from the KSFO tower (120.50) and final approach control for the period September 10, 2010 – 0100Z to 0300Z. I did not listen to ground or other frequencies, so more commentary may be present. A special transitional tower frequency (128.65) was used for the aircraft over the emergency site, which I don't believe is captured in the archives.
The work of the tower controllers and pilots during this period is quite impressive. Interspersed with radio calls about the fire, there are numerous transmissions regarding routine arrivals and departures. The airport appears to have remained fully operational during the situation, despite its close proximity to the disaster area. You need to listen to the raw archive recordings to fully appreciate this. The first call about the explosion and fire comes from a pilot at about 6:12 pm PDT (KSFO Tower Sept 10 - 0112Z).
I included a Lear going around because they were too high in the midst of all this at about 5 minutes 10 seconds into the attached 13 minute recording. Also of interest is a comment about an air tanker working the fire in the departure corridor at 8 minutes 50 seconds and a report of ash on an aircraft at 11 minutes 40 seconds.
Current media reports are saying at least 4 people were killed and many more injured. This is horribly tragic for those people, their families and everyone in San Bruno who was affected. My heart goes out to them. I hope a cause is found soon and lessons are learned. This could happen virtually anywhere in the United States and Canada.
David P.