Because of the death and destruction, it was probably the biggest incident that Ive handled, Clark said. He is the author of four books, most recently a memoir/collection I'm Dyin' Here. This post was contributed by a community member. . But Jeffrey McIllwain kept mementos, a charred piece of wood, the plastic driving glasses and a hairbrush that his mother stored in her car. 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. Someone just paid HOW MUCH for an original iPhone? You want to blank those out of your mind. Two weeks ago they had to relive the nightmare when Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashed on takeoff in Detroit, killing at least 155 people. We didnt know until we ran out the house and saw what happened.. Nevertheless, Kramers plane collided with the jetliner just before noon, clipping off its horizontal tail stabilizer, turning the DC-9 into a rudderless missile. She just wanted us to know more about the story. This was an accident.. 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.. Both planes crashed to the ground, killing everyone aboard. Their terror had to be a hundred times worse than ours, Wes Neally said. 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. We spent our whole lives getting here and now an airplane drops from the skies and no place is safe. . Linda McIllwain was the wife of the man Knabe refers to repeatedly as my buddy. She baby-sat for the Knabe children. People are saying things to themselves like: It shouldnt have happened to us. The line about the sales manager just taking $2,000 off what you offered him was, what? Nearby, surrounded by bags of concrete and wheelbarrows, workmen are applying finishing touches such as garage-door trim to two houses on Holmes and Reva Circle, fitting windows into the completed frame of another home and hammering the last rolls of tar paper over the frame of a fourth. 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. Her seat had cut that hole. In that brief flash of time, the 58 passengers of the Aeromexico jet, its six-person crew and 15 people on the ground were killed. News footage from August 31, 1986 about the Aeromexico DC-9 airplane that crashed in Cerritos, California. At his house, all that remained was the garage. She made a telephone call to her office and returned to tell Estrada that the Cerritos City Council had voted to allocate $25,900 of the citys crash-victims fund to Alejandro and Frank Jr. Its an event. In a way, I envy Robbie, because he saw it. Did they feel the collision? Perhaps she had miraculously escaped. It was more than twice the size of any other grant made from the fund. Its over. We dont talk about it, he said. 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. 82 people total lost their lives, including 64 on the DC-9, 3 on the small plane and 15 on the ground. The remembrance will include a brief formal ceremony with the Cerritos City Council; a reading of the victims' names; a prayer for the victims and their loved ones; and a moment of silence. One of the early arrivals at the scene of the wreckage was the Rev. The mother first moved her family to the San Diego suburb of Chula Vista, to be near her parents, brother and two sisters, who live in the San Diego area. Yellow police tape, miles of it, cordoned off all such areas.. Among his family, he alone returns to the old neighborhood, only when necessary because of his job. We had a debriefing, one of the best things our department has ever done, he said. When he returned home, he got a call about the plane crash. Both planes crashed to the ground, killing everyone aboard. 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. The family had to go to court to get one. I grabbed a ladder and went over the fence and suddenly realized where I was.. That, too, gives him a pang. He lives in Long Beach. Neallys family has new furniture, new clothes, new cars--so much new stuff they sometimes feel guilty--but none of it can overcome the lingering dread. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Koepke was in the heat of the disaster, where residents had been incinerated in their homes and houses were blazing, fully involved. I looked around and I had friends who lived in that neighborhood and I didnt know if they were dead or alive.. But a year later the questions with no answers continue to gnaw. What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? He was on scene within the first 30 or 40 minutes. On August 31, 1986, an Aeromexico DC-9 was clipped by a small plane over Cerritos. His mother, Linda, 37, told him to take her baby blue Oldsmobile instead of his blue Volkswagen beetle, which was low on gas. William Kramer was flying that day. It was a life-changing experience, Knabe said. Slowly, they realized she had seen a newscast about an airliner that had crashed on a Mexico City freeway that week, killing 54 people. Naturally, we wouldve liked to have spoken with Nelson and her family, and were sorry that we didnt. . Considered the darkest day in city's history, the Aug. 31, 1986 tragedy shocked everyone in the town we all call home as well as those spanning communities and nations throughout the world. Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe was mayor of Cerritos at the time. Im so thankful that was my final memory, said McIllwain, now 26 and a teacher. 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. No positive identification of Frank Estrada had been found amid the debris. There they were finally able to pull each other over the fence to Carmenita and safety. Get a heart attack and die?. National Transportation Safety Board Aircraft Accident Report: Collision of Aeronaves de Mexico, S.A McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32, XA JED and Piper PA-28-181, NF891F, Cerritos, California, August 31, 1986. Restrooms. Its not an easy thing, but its an important thing, he said. Half the family--Frank and two teen-age children--were killed. We saw people in their closets that couldnt understand why they were saved and their neighbors houses blew up with the airplane, Knabe said. She wasnt talking at all, only groaning and rocking back and forth, he said. Everybody kind of came down towards the end of our block because we were at the end of the cul-de-sac, she said. You dont seem moved, the reporter said. Today we remember those who lost their lives in the Aug. 31, 1986 mid-air collision -- a tragedy that forever changed the City of Cerritos and its community. Two of the Neally children, Rochelle, 15, and Ryan, 12, were out of the neighborhood. We were like three lost souls, she said. 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Im gratified, she said. I guess these are the little human stories that no one really cares about except those of us who lived them.. On roofs and in flower beds, rescue workers gingerly placed the remains of passengers in bright yellow body bags.   <p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p> Contact the writer: amolina@ocregister.com or 714-704-3795. I (was sure) he was dead, but when I saw his ashen face, there are no words to describe my emotions. Unlike war veterans, the people of Cerritos were not expecting to be attacked. None of us need to have attention drawn to this area again, they wrote. But when something like this happens to your house, with you in it, you lose all sense of security.. The views expressed in this post are the author's own. After several minutes, she just let out a wail that I could not describe. About 20 houses were either completely or partially destroyed. . (File photo.). Thats where it happened. Miraculously, it spared Angelicias twin brother, Alejandro, who somehow pushed through the rubble that fell on top of him. My limitation is that I cant tell the difference between your fact and your fiction. Thirty, 40 of them on a Saturday or Sunday, Fuller said, long drained of astonishment. Everybody was crying. 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 all of a sudden this secure place is invaded. They were given counseling at Cerritos Elementary School when class began again in September, and I still have the pictures they were asked to draw about the accident (house, people, airplane falling from the sky, etc.). Places were smoldering, he said, voice trembling. It really hit home. I could see into our kitchen, and there were white balls of flashes. Cronkhite and her husband were helping them. People would see me and turn the other way, like they felt I was bad luck, or diseased, Estrada said. It might as well be a week later. Our mailbag this week isnt packed with notes calling us a moron, which is sort of refreshing, but also not very funny. A few weeks later a reporter from a Long Beach newspaper was wrapping up an interview in Estradas home. 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She needed her car to go to Mass in Buena Park. She, her husband and her son were met with fire, smoke and debris. Wednesday marked the 30th anniversary of one of Southern Californias most devastating air disasters. 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. Three little tennis shoes, size 2 or 3, Anderson said. No sleeping required. No one wanted that. Two people were seen inside the plane, decapitated and still strapped into their seats. We moved back, but for me that just made it worse, Estrada said. He recognized that, to some, he sounds on the verge of self-pity. Did they see the Piper? We tried to make the place, although there were no homes left in certain places, at least get the I dont know how else to say it but get the smell of death and the thought of death off the ground and move forward, Knabe said. The silvery metal tail section lay in a driveway off Gerritt Avenue, covered with blood., At nearby Concordia Lutheran Church, orange metal pieces of the massive DC-9 jetliner lay on the lawn, along with more bodies. The wall to Carmenita was still too high. As for the neighbors who lived through the tragedy, many of them moved away. Anything reminds you of it happening again.. Also speaking will be Knabe and Koepke, along with members of the community. I keep trying to imagine what the plane looked like when it fell. She did not know where to go. Aug. 31, 1986: Covered human remains and debris at the crash site in Cerritos of the Aeromexico DC-9 jetliner. Dennis McIllwain could not believe his wife was dead. By that time, (my wife) Julie had turned on the TV and she started screaming, because she recognized the area and some of our friends homes, Knabe said. But after his alarm rang at 9:30 a.m., he changed his mind, jumped into khaki jeans and a cream-colored button-down shirt and headed for church. He dwells more on lifes what-ifs. Get up to speed with our Essential California newsletter, sent six days a week. Dennis McIllwain left to visit his sister nearby only 10 minutes before the crash. Doma Mallari looks through temporary fence Wednesday, September 3, 1986 which was erected around the area where the Aeromexico jetliner crashed in Cerritos, Calif., Sunday. Jeffrey asked neighbors if his mother or father were alive. Jeffrey began to realize he had to make a choice. Aug. 31, 1986: Firefighters and investigators examine wreckage of the small plane that collided with Aeromexico Flight 498. Tim Grobaty began his career at the Press-Telegram in 1976 as a copy boy and has held several positions at the paper including feature writer, music critic, TV critic, copy editor and, since 1991, daily columnist. They pushed through a lath fence into Ivan Medinas backyard. He tried to tell me that a plane had tried to land next door.. There , they say. The scene to this day that bothers me the most--and Im starting to think of it more, now, with the anniversary coming up--was the (lowered) garage door with a perfectly square hole in it, Anderson said. 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. News of the disaster made front-page headlines across the world, and for many, it was the first time anyone had heard of Cerritos. The small plane involved in the collision, which the Federal Aviation Administration said was a single-engine Piper Cherokee, crashed about a half mile away in the yard of the Cerritos Elementary . The Piper crashed in a playing field at Cerritos Elementary School, a quarter-mile from the main crash site. 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. Each article contained horrifying descriptions of the event and heartbreaking quotes from the Cerritos locals that lived through the devastation. In the year since then, more slowly than was anticipated, a new neighborhood has arisen. in the north, South St. in the south, Bloomfield Ave. in the west and Marquardt Ave. in the east. The smoke and all that was so thick that you couldnt even breathe down at that end of the block.. You sit there and you say to yourself, Im not going to say anything, cause Im OK. Then you hear the guy next to you saying, I havent slept for three days. And you all begin to realize, Them, too. What you get out of it is you realize that its OK to feel this way. Fire and first responders were just arriving. She headed for the neighborhood, turned a corner and found . She wouldnt go by that site. It happened to be Labor Day weekend in 1986. Loreto officials were on hand for the memorial dedication. Its not just that McIllwain misses his mother during the milestone events, like graduation. I stared at that hole, and for a lot of nights after that, I dreamed about that hole.. An investigator with the National Transportation safety Board uses a magnifying glass Tuesday morning, September 2, 1986 to inspect piece of small plane which collided with Aeromexico jetliner. Getting through the day, seeing my sons happy, that is important. 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