The scene looked like a war zone with homes engulfed in flames and lawns covered with twisted metal and human remains. Some of those new to the area, just east of Carmenita Avenue, know nothing of its grim history. Aug. 31, 1986: The smoldering ruins of homes mark the area of Cerritos where an Aeromexico jetliner fell to earth. A neighbor brought over something that had blown into his yard. After the crash, I didnt feel like I was one of the good guys. Like all survivors, she had to confront the question of whether there was a reason she lived and they died. Airline spokesman Guy Arriola said 58 passengers and six crew members were aboard the DC-9 when it went down about 20 miles east of the airport. The number of fatalities fluctuated as the wreckage was cleared, but in the end, the accident killed a total of 82 people, including everyone on both aircrafts and 15 people on the ground. The line about the sales manager just taking $2,000 off what you offered him was, what? He was on scene within the first 30 or 40 minutes. Jeffrey McIllwain found consolation in the kindness of friends and neighbors, the people who brought home-cooked meals or told him stories: how his mother had comforted kids whose parents were undergoing divorce, how she had offered everyone rides from school to home, even boys she knew had joined a gang. She told us, Youre going to have periods when youre depressed. They had left Torrance Airport and headed for Big Bear, while an Aeromexico DC-9 flying from Tijuana was bound for Los Angeles International. Get up to speed with our Essential California newsletter, sent six days a week. The crash, caused when a single-engine Piper Cherokee struck the DC-9 as the jet approached Los Angeles International Airport, killed 15 people in four homes, all 64 aboard the jetliner and all three in the Piper. About 20 houses were either completely or partially destroyed. Maybe its a form of self-protection.. On August 31, 1986, an Aeromexico DC-9 was clipped by a small plane over Cerritos. People died. With each educational laurel, he thinks of how pleased his mother would be. Maybe the girl was too young to understand what he wrote, but perhaps one day she would read those letters and they would help. Those who lived through it 25 years ago recently reflected on the tragedy that changed this city. Dennis McIllwain plans to move his family back when his house is ready, probably within months. After talking to counselors and to each other, we decided it was not a good idea to move back into the area that we were fighting for our lives to get out of, said Wes Neally, who was badly burned by the time he, his wife, their then 8-year-old daughter Reanna and her friend Diane escaped. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Ray will host the Cerritos Air Disaster 30th Anniversary Remembrance ceremony in memory of the 67 people who died on board the two planes and the 15 who died on the ground, at 11:30 a.m. today in the Sculpture Garden at 18125 Bloomfield Ave., in Cerritos. On the 25th anniversary of the Cerritos Air Disaster last year, the city of Cerritos held a special ceremony honoring the lives of those who perished as a result of the plane crash, drawing hundreds of community members from the Southland as well families and friends of the deceased victims. Of the six families whose homes were destroyed without loss of life, five plan to move back. We all just feel, Neally said, groping for the right words, like we were totally violated. Some residents were in church, some were shopping for groceries for backyard barbecues. He lives in Long Beach. Then she asked if I would pray with her, which I did.. In a way, I envy Robbie, because he saw it. Computers at FAA air traffic facilities automatically record when two airplanes under the guidance of controllers come closer than the FAA believes is safe. Dennis McIllwain left to visit his sister nearby only 10 minutes before the crash. What remains unsettled, and in many cases deeply hidden, are the emotional consequences. It slammed into a residential neighborhood at Holmes Avenue and Reva Circle in Cerritos, crashing into the backyard of a house at 13426 Ashworth Place, where it exploded on impact. The Crash site is bounded by Artesia Blvd. Their small plane fluttering down into the field at Cerritos Elementary school. Did they die immediately? Unlike war veterans, the people of Cerritos were not expecting to be attacked. Its the little stuff, too. Heres an excerpt from his article, which appeared in the Sept. 1, 1986, Times: The crash occurred at 11:55 a.m., and authorities identified the downed airliner as Aeromexico Flight 498, which was about to land at Los Angeles International Airport after a flight from Mexico City with stops in Guadalajara, Loreto and Tijuana. But it has been worse. People just wanted to move on.. His mother, Linda, 37, told him to take her baby blue Oldsmobile instead of his blue Volkswagen beetle, which was low on gas. She did not know where to go. Yeah, right, the others said. Its an event. He is the author of four books, most recently a memoir/collection I'm Dyin' Here. On August 31, 1986, an Aeromexico DC-9 was clipped by a small plane over Cerritos. He lights a cigarette--a habit hes fallen back into after 17 years of abstaining--and compulsively checks the house for escape routes. Theresa Estrada has already tried to come back to Cerritos.   <p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p> Contact the writer: amolina@ocregister.com or 714-704-3795. Ray, an executive for a Santa Fe Springs-based manufacturing firm that makes parts for airplanes and the space program, heard what he thought was a sonic boom. Dave Clark, a retired CHP dispatcher who handled emergency calls that day, said that in his 40-year career as a dispatcher, the Cerritos plane crash stands out. Aug. 31, 1986: Firefighters mop up embers from burned-out home and aircraft pieces. (AP Photo/Lennox McLendon), This iconic photo of the Aeromexico DC-9 plummeting from the sky was taken by then-Cerritos Planning Commissioner Al Francis, who had been taking pictures of his granddaughter at his home at the time of the plane crash in 1986. She, her husband and her son were met with fire, smoke and debris. I saw smoke and I thought our new post office was on fire because that was just south of where the plane went down, he said. Neally finally found his family in the backyard, trapped. Its over. They live in a beautiful, well-planned, insulated community of 55,000 with lush, tree-lined greenbelts and tracts surrounded by tall, protective walls, a texture more akin to neighboring Orange County than Los Angeles. The crash of Aeromexico Flight 498 killed 82 people: 64 jetliner passengers, 15 people on the ground and three in the small plane that collided with the jet as it approached Los Angeles International Airport. . About 20 houses were either completely or partially destroyed. I could see into our kitchen, and there were white balls of flashes. Before, we never noticed planes going over, and now I still look and see when planes go over, Grossman said. Bob Kirkpatrick, a computer programmer in Spokane, Wash., said in an interview tonight that the dead pilot was his father-in-law, William C. Kramer, a 56-year-old retired executive with the Kaiser . Both planes crashed to the ground, killing everyone aboard. Im gratified, she said. Why me? We sent a petition to the city saying no, we didnt want it, Grossman said about the plaque. One woman who lives near the crash site told of telephoning a government agency to make an appointment and having the clerk, upon hearing her address, ask if thats where the plane went down. But all of a sudden this secure place is invaded. The coroners office would not issue a death certificate. Across the street, next door to Ivan Medinas still-vacant lot, Doug and Ann Fuller, whod been out sailing when the plane crashed, came back. The survivors figured August would be a difficult month because of extensive publicity about the anniversary. 82 people total lost their lives, including 64. In Cerritos, the emotional wounds from the crash took time to heal. All she knows is that she has to relive the moment when she and her husband were sitting down to lunch and a high-pitched whistle turned into a deafening roar and Robbie ran up the driveway and yelled that a plane was falling. We saw people in their closets that couldnt understand why they were saved and their neighbors houses blew up with the airplane, Knabe said. One of the early arrivals at the scene of the wreckage was the Rev. Half the family--Frank and two teen-age children--were killed. Suppose Id seen this stupid plane come down--what would I do? Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), A Cerritos Air Disaster survivors terrifying memories, Biden expected to tighten rules on US investment in China, More Iranian schoolgirls sickened in suspected poisoning wave. The Knabes and the McIllwains traveled together on vacations. Often, when shes sitting on her patio or in her driveway, Gail Grossman will watch airplanes trace the skies over her house on Ashworth Place. She mentioned they would fly to their departure point. Often, unable to sleep, Medina gets up at 2 or 3 in the morning and walks through the house he has rented since last October, a few miles from the spot where his familys life was blown apart. The sculpture bears the names of all of the victims. The three Kramers were killed instantly. Koepke was in the heat of the disaster, where residents had been incinerated in their homes and houses were blazing, fully involved. He tried to tell me that a plane had tried to land next door.. A few minutes after that, the plane fell. Only one family that lost a relative remains in the neighborhood: the McIllwains, who rebuilt their home. Have a nice time, she said as she came out to the porch in herhousedress. In 2006, a memorial next to City Hall was completed and dedicated. At first, he was overly protective of family members and friends, trying to make sure that everyone was safe. Never had so many been killed on the ground as the result of an airline crash in the United States. Times Staff Writer. There were talks of building a park in place of the houses or installing a plaque on a wall in the neighborhood, but residents there refused to have something so close to home. On Aug. 31, 1986, Aeromexico Flight 498, a Douglas DC-9, flying from Mexico City to Los Angeles International Airport, collided with a Piper PA-28 Archer over Cerritos. Seat belts dangled from charred tree branches. Airline pilots are used to having accidents occur. She was still waving as he pulled out of the driveway, Jeffrey remembers. Los Angeles. The wreckage of a small plane which collided with an Aeromexico jetliner is removed from a schoolyard in Cerritos, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 2, 1986. She was in her house eating Cheese Whiz nachos and her 7-year-old son, Robbie, was outside with his dog Peach when the Aeromexico plane spiraled to the ground. Thirty, 40 of them on a Saturday or Sunday, Fuller said, long drained of astonishment. How much this 58% increase in the number of near-collisions reflects the safety of the skies since the crash is questionable. The flight data recorder was recovered Monday in the rubble of a house that was destroyed when the jet collided in midair with a small plane. . "Cerritos plane crash 30 years ago: 'You either died or you didn't' " - Press Telegram. My oldest daughter was 16 or 17 when the crash happened. The disaster strengthened the bonds in an already close family. The city of Cerritos has healed in the intervening 30 years. It was an issue of dealing with the community, the pain and sorrow of those who survived, the neighborhood, the whole city.. We had so much food we didnt know what to do with it, Grossman said. in the north, South St. in the south, Bloomfield Ave. in the west and Marquardt Ave. in the east. Long after the funerals and the insurance payoffs and the title transfers and the first Christmases have been endured, a feeling of incompleteness still plagues the survivors. By Thanksgiving of that year, the residents who survived moved back into newly rebuilt homes. Such burdens fall just as heavily on some of the hundreds of people who are called to work at the scene of an air crash, OHair said. She was sitting there in almost a catatonic way, Koepke recalled. Don Koepke was wrapping up services at St. John Lutheran Church when an usher came forward with a note from Sue Nelson, then a member of his congregation who lived in the neighborhood. That sound and the smell of jet fuel burning, and how everything got black and dark.. After the Cerritos City Council discussed commemorating the 10-year anniversary of the crash, two dozen residents signed a petition asking that no ceremony take place. We felt sorry for the people because we know whats ahead of them.. Not a day goes by without a newspaper or television story about air safety, and few such stories go by without reference to Cerritos. Ambulances were there but they were not needed, because it was a coroners situation.. The device, called TCAS-2 (Traffic alert and Collision Avoidance System), was ordered into airliners after the Cerritos crash. On August 31, 1986, an Aeromexico DC-9 was clipped by a small plane over Cerritos. in the north, South St. in the south, Bloomfield Ave. in the west and Marquardt Ave. in the east. And every five years we have a ceremony at the memorial in the Sculpture Garden. 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It happened to be Labor Day weekend in 1986. They, too, were stuck. Everybody was crying. I was informed at the time that it was a stewardess who had come through that door. One evening a couple of months ago, the Neallys 9-year-old daughter, Reanna, was crying in her bed. As it was, Medina, his wife, their 3-year-old son and a niece escaped the terrible flames and explosions that consumed their house and everything they owned. She remembered the bombing raids. Aug. 31, 1986: A deputy stands amid debris on Holmes Avenue after the jetliner crash in Cerritos. As the citys mayor at the time of the crash, he had to uphold a strong, optimistic public image and quickly plunge into hundreds of logistical details for the neighborhoods recovery. McMillan and his father, Dennis Mcillwain, were both away from their home when it was hit by pieces of the falling Aeromexico jet Sunday. Cronkhite and her husband were helping them. There they were finally able to pull each other over the fence to Carmenita and safety. After several months, it was clear that Alejandro and Frank Jr. were lonely for their friends in Cerritos. Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe, who was mayor of Cerritos at the time, was also at church when the crash happened. It was a tragedy right in our neighborhood. Its also the loss of a place and possessions, of roots, of having to live through a cliche so easily spoken but rarely experienced: lost everything. The Cerritos Air Disaster 25th Anniversary Remembrance is scheduled at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Cerritos Air Disaster Memorial in the Cerritos Sculpture Garden, 18125 Bloomfield Avenue. Fullerton, California. For goodness sake, he thought with the embarrassment of a 16-year-old, Im only going to church. You know what theyre talking about--who died, who youre not going to see anymore, said Robert Cole of Spokane, Wash., a lifelong friend of William Kramer, the 53-year-old pilot of the Piper Archer that strayed into restricted airspace and collided with Aeromexico Flight 498. VIDEO: Final moments of fatal plane crash caught on camera by passenger It was a life-changing experience, Knabe said. Parking. Wednesday marked the 30th anniversary of one of Southern Californias most devastating air disasters. . Using a table, they climbed over their backyard brick wall, hopscotching flames, joining other neighbors in a frantic escape. What now? This margin of safety is far greater than the limits by which near-collisions are defined. I know now that any anxiety I feel in the next two weeks, well, there will be feeling there, because I feel sorry for a whole lot of people--not only the victims who died, but a lot of very, very nice people who suffered greatly and probably still are suffering today. nothing. You cant explain whatll set you off. His wifes death is still mentioned by several families in the neighborhood as one of their most heartbreaking losses. . I keep trying to imagine what the plane looked like when it fell. The house was leveled; all that remained was a blackened, smoldering lot. Still wearing his clergymans collar, Koepke climbed over the wall and walked through the neighborhood, gripped by what he saw. On Aug. 31, 1986, the then sleepy suburban town of Cerritos was faced with unfathomable tragedy when a commercial aircraft collided with a small plane directly over the city. . When all the rebuilding and moving-in is finished on Holmes Avenue, Reva Circle and Ashworth Place, the majority of the faces in the neighborhood will still be the established ones. Then, I saw the jet nose sticking out of a wall on Carmenita Road. The concept of providing mental health to victims and first responders is now applied nationally. Almost a year after the Cerritos crash, a Northwest Airlines plane plunged to the ground as it took off from the Detroit airport. . God has showered us with love.. The hardest thing to deal with was the duality of my involvement, he said. Wreckage of a small plane sits next to the tail section (right center) of an Aeromexico jetliner at the Long Beach, Calif., Airport, in this September 3, 1986 file photo. We dont talk about it, he said. The smoke and all that was so thick that you couldnt even breathe down at that end of the block.. I all of a sudden find myself back on that day. The city went door-to-door, setting up counseling. Contact Tim Grobaty at 562-714-2116, tgrobaty@scng.com, @grobaty on Twitter. What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? All right, then. And a reader from Lakewood who really, really, really likes to smoke weed and who was proud way beyond reason to have attended Lakewood High School, responded to a column we wrote about high school in the olden days, which to him were in 1972, when you could buy an ounce of Mexican marijuana for $10, and a little better grade of Mexican for $15, or, you could get the best, Acapulco Gold and Panama Red for $30 an ounce., Mr. Lakewood goes on to say that the 1972 good stuff was WAY better than anything grown today.. It was the hellishness of fire and debris tearing off the roof of the two-story home, of scurrying around, looking for his family, of wearing only swimming trunks and being scorched by burning jet fuel from the air, of looking down and seeing his arm on fire--burns that would cost him seven weeks of work. Otherwise, it could drive you nuts real quick.. The FAA now requires all small planes using airspace around the nations busiest airports to carry Mode C transponders, instruments that broadcast altitudes to air traffic controllers. It was a cousin. .. In a Register story dated Sept. 1, 1986, reporter Edward Humes described the scene: The airliner had careened through houses on three streets, its nose punching through a brick wall onto busy Carmenita Street, crushing the rear end of a Ford Galaxy. Linda McIllwain was the wife of the man Knabe refers to repeatedly as my buddy. She baby-sat for the Knabe children. Diane Seaman, center, tries to hold back the tears as names of the Guzman family are read during the memorial ceremony held Wednesday at the Cerritos Sculpture Garden in Cerritos, in remembrance of the 82 people who died 25 years ago when two planes collided in the skies over Cerritos and plunged to the ground at 11:52 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 31, 1986. Three people were reported to have been on board the smaller airplane, which crashed in an empty school yard about two blocks from the wreckage of the airliner.. I have these blank spots, she said. I was in church and I came out and I thought our new post office was on fire, he recalled. . She cannot explain her hunger. CBS2's Dave Lopez, who covered the tragedy that day, takes a look back at the disaster. Both children were out of the neighborhood at the time of the crash. . They could never again find peace in Cerritos. He saw Theresa Estrada, who had just come back from the grocery store when she saw the plane hit her house, killing her husband, Frank; her 16-year-old son, Javier; and her 14-year-old daughter, Anjelica. Many survivors still wobble. The DC-9, whose tail was clipped by the small plane, propelled itself like a missile into the Earth. Its on a daily basis--I cant pick up the phone and talk to her, he said. I sat next to her and all I said, if I remember, is This is a terrible thing, and she let out a cry like I never heard before, then she just started sobbing. Nelson didnt write the letter for publication. No sleeping required. 82 people total lost their lives, including 64 on the DC-9, 3 on the small plane and 15 on the ground. Rickards boyfriend and Cronkhites husband went to pick up the last load. Reports from that day said even people from as far as Signal Hill eight miles from Cerritoscould hear the crash. The views expressed in this post are the author's own. The nightmare that once regularly haunted Wes Neally--flying aboard a plane that crashes--now strikes only a couple of times a year. The airplanes wing sliced off the top of his two-story house, the fuselage smacked into the yard, and the house burst into flames. The ceremony will be held at the Cerritos Air Disaster Memorial in the Cerritos Sculpture Garden which is located in the Civic Center. Back to our (considerably) less horrific columns, reader John Billings called us out on our claim that we once did such a weak job of haggling over the price of a new car that the sales manager went ahead and lopped $2,000 off the agreed-upon price. They pushed through a lath fence into Ivan Medinas backyard. As the years go by, McIllwain realizes the little ways in which the crash has changed his life. You either died or you didnt.. Mary Guzman holds photos of her son, Robert Guzman and her husband Joe Guzman, right, both died at 11:52 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 31, 1986, when two planes collided in the skies over Cerritos and plunged to the ground, at the 25 year memorial Wednesday, at the Cerritos Sculpture Garden in Cerritos. Each article contained horrifying descriptions of the event and heartbreaking quotes from the Cerritos locals that lived through the devastation. 82 people total lost their lives, including 64 on the DC-9, 3 on the small plane and 15 on the ground. On a recent Tuesday evening, just back in his newly built home, Doug Fuller looked out of his living room and saw another eternal nuisance, the gawkers, the strangers who still drive up and down the block, still curious, still gesturing from their cars. It took different lengths of time for different people, Ray said. The horror of the crash was captured in a Times retrospective published 10 years after the tragedy: The last time Jeffrey McIllwain saw his mother, she was standing on the porch in a house dress, saying that she loved him. What the first initial thought was, we didnt know. But money is not important to me. . Then-Planning Commissioner George Ray, who today is the mayor of Cerritos, was doing some work at home on his dining room table. Its a picture as iconic of the disaster as the Falling Man image is of 9/11. But the potential for that accident to happen exists every day, and you dont want to think about it., Nonetheless, Grundmann said, when hes working on a Sunday, and he happens to look out over the traffic control sector in which Aeromexico was flying that day, I still think about it.. The air traffic controller who tracked an Aeromexico jetliner before it collided with a private plane over Cerritos and crashed testified Tuesday that . Its natural. You cant let your job be affected by them. The Piper crashed in a playing field at Cerritos Elementary School, a quarter-mile from the main crash site. Two planes a jetliner and small single-engine aircraft collided over Cerritos. Wheelchair Accessible. 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On Aug. 31, 1986, an Aeromexico DC-9, Flight 498, collided with a single-engine Piper Archer at 6,500 feet above the Cerritos neighborhood near Ashworth and Carmenita Road. I looked around and I had friends who lived in that neighborhood and I didnt know if they were dead or alive.. The cause of the crash--an inadequate air traffic control system and poor judgment by the small planes pilot--was settled long ago. Loreto officials were on hand for the memorial dedication. Another 24 were classified as potentially hazardous, meaning that a collision might have occurred if neither of the pilots nor a controller had taken action. The Nelsons moved to Michigan following the crash, and 12 years later came back to California to live in Riverside. Another son, Frank Jr., now 19, was away water-skiing. Numerous residents declined to be interviewed. In his mind, he kept going over a line from the Bible: We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him. Silently, he asked God to fulfill that pledge: If theres any way you can have my parents live through this, please do. On Aug. 31, 1986, an Aeromexico DC-9, Flight 498, collided with a single-engine Piper Archer at 6,500 feet above the Cerritos neighborhood near Ashworth and Carmenita Road. I saw this huge plume of smoke, and I thought, this is not just a house on fire, he said. Usually, she has coffee with them every Friday morning. I heard the thrust reversals, the pilot instinctively trying to slow the plane. And every tragedy, such as the recent Olympics bombing and the explosion of a TWA jet over New York, brings a painful jolt of empathy with the victims. . I used to say, Thats the way its going to be. Im not the same. There was Medina, with his wife, Fanny Patricia, his son, Ivan Jr., and his wifes niece. She had gotten an accounting job so she could help pay for his college. It was like a battlefield, he said. Did they feel the collision? Workers sweep up debris Tuesday morning, September 2, 1986 from Aeromexico jetliner which crashed in a residential neighborhood after colliding with a small plane. Koepke, who with Knabe will take part in the ceremony, said that while remembering the day remains difficult for some, its a day that must be acknowledged.