‘There’s a plane in the gas station’

Irma Lemus

MEDIA DISTRICT NORTH -- Benny Natanzi learned there was a problem at

the Chevron gas station he owns on Hollywood Way and Burton Ave. when he

received a call at his Winetka home from one of his employees.

Carlos Martinez, the only worker at the gas station Sunday evening,

needed information fast.

“He called me at about 6:30 p.m. asking me where the emergency switch

was at,” Natanzi said. “I asked him why and he just told me, ‘There’s a

plane in the gas station!’ I asked him if he was joking but he said it

was real, and then I saw it on television.”

It was no joke. About 10 minutes before Martinez’s frantic call, a

Southwest Boeing 737 inbound from Las Vegas skidded off the Burbank

Airport runway and across Hollywood Way. It came to rest a few short

yards from the gas station.

Natanzi, 31, said Monday morning the fact that he almost lost his

business had not sunken in.

The shut-off valve closes gas flow to the pumps, he said.

“The pumps have an emergency shut-off, like for earthquakes,” he said,

“But I don’t know what would’ve happened if the plane had hit the

station.”

The incident was not exactly good for business, he said.

“Mondays are usually our busiest days. We lost a lot of customers

because the plane was cleared out until a little before 10 this morning,”

he said.

Maria Sanchez’s Sunday night television watching was interrupted by a

loud crashing noise followed by sirens, but the 46-year-old mother of

three said she never imagined it was a 737 grinding to a halt a block

away from her home.

Sanchez, who lives on the corner of Thornton Avenue and Fairview

Street, said that after hearing the crash her youngest son ran to the

scene.

“He ran back and told me what had happened. I couldn’t believe it,

and then I saw it on television,” Sanchez said in her native Spanish. “I

was surprised because this is the first time anything like this has ever

happened, and I have lived here 22 years.”

Cai Yi, owner of Silver Lake Chinese Fast Food restaurant, next door

to the gas station, said she considers herself lucky. She said that

although her restaurant is open late on weekdays and Saturday, she closes

on Sunday.

“I didn’t know about the accident until some friends called me and

then I saw it on TV,” Yi said. “They asked me if I was OK.”