I remember my family being in tears because my uncle had a seat on that flight, he tried to call the family to let everyone know that he missed the flight but everyone was on the way to the airport to get him , when we arrived we were ushered into an area where we were told the news , Hours later my aunt returned home and sees my uncle sitting there and passes out , so she had to be hospitalized that night , It was a crazy day for all of us ,
I was an air traffic controller in ZTL for twenty years, and things like this were my worst nightmare. Luckily, I had no errors, and no airspace violations. I know that we sound robotic and unempathic when the you hear the tapes, but I assure you our hearts are in our throats.
I knew many ATC's and it was a highly stressful job and it takes a psychological toll on them especially the ones who were on duty during the crash of Flight 427 in Pittsburgh due to the mechanical failure of the rudder. Some of them retired shortly after that. It's terrible knowing a flight has gone down and there was nothing that you could have done about it.
My husband is ATC for the British Air force and he can't stomach to watch these kind of videos. It's just heartbreaking isn't it, you all definitely do have a heart
I'd been dismissing this channel in the past because it looked a bit too animated and had no one speaking. I sat and watched some of these videos recently and am absolutely amazed by how captivating and educational they are. They are so well done and now this is my joint favourite channel in learning a little about aircraft. Thank you TheFlightChannel is making such awesome videos. From the UK.
I’ve learned more about planes from this and other sources than I really need to. Fascinating stuff yet also sad when so much could have been avoided. This is a great channel. Also from the UK.
Same here. Always passed these up, finally one day started watching them, ...I don't fly a plane but damn if these videos don't make me want to start flying quality simulators. I've been binge watching these videos for the past 2 weeks.
@@dsandoval9396 ...watch air disasters on smithsonian channel. Much better for the whole story and accuracy. Here, the plane is not even the right color.
that picture where the plane is in an inverted plunge to the ground really captures the horror that those people on that plane were experiencing. RIP flight 498
It is also not stated that the pilot of the Piper PA was ruled at autopsy to have suffered a fatal heart attack rendering him incapable of flying his aircraft. The Piper aircraft suddenly increased its climb hitting the Areomexico DC's tail and stabilizers with the horizontal stabilizer slicing through the tail rendering the DC9 inoperable and causing the aircraft to plunge into an inverted nose dive. The DC9 crashed into a busy subdivision where families were celebrating the Labor Day holiday with picnics and bbqs. It was determined by the FAA that the fatal heart attack of the Piper PA pilot to be the primary cause of the collision with the Aeromexico jet over Cerritos as the fatal heart event caused the Piper pilot continued his climb. (The Piper pilot had also not made any contact with LA Flight Control. The Piper pilot was flying under Visual Flight Rules. I lived in Torrance(the correct spelling) at the time and this crash was reported extensively in all manner of newsmedia of the time. The Daily Breeze published in Torrance and the Los Angeles Times as well as every local news channel. The ATC was found to be not at fault, while the fatal heart event of the pilot in the Piper was deemed to be the primary cause of the mid air collision. The pilot of the Piper lived in Palos Verdes, just up the hill from the Torrance Airport and flew from there frequently. He and his wife and daughter were flying to Big Bear Lake for the Labor Day holiday.
@ I'm familiar with that terrible crash. Horrible. Another crash, PSA 1771, though it wasn't a collision, involved a disgruntled ex-employee who shot the pilots and some others and put the plane full throttle straight down vertically. The plane going down even surpassed the speed of sound. The G-Forces "experienced a deceleration of 5,000 times the force of gravity (G-force) when it hit the ground." (Fighter pilots sometimes reach 9 Gs.) Complete disintegration of plane and people. An episode was on Air Disasters, Season 3/Episode 3 "I'm The Problem". Can't wrap my head around it. Cause was ruled murder/suicide.
I lived in Cerritos when this happened. My little sisters boyfriend died when a piece of the plane landed on his house. Ill never forget how unreal it felt and all the lives lost on the planes and on the ground.
I had a ticket for this very flight that would have been returning me from vacationing in Baja to Los Angeles on a Sunday afternoon. Only I was having a lousy time in Loreto and decided to return early and rescheduled to return on Friday instead of Sunday. It's a once daily flight and probably it was the same pilots and crew that I flew with on Friday were the ones that perished in that awful accident in the skies over Cerritos. Imagine that: my inability to enjoy myself on vacation saved my life. I no longer fly.
@robbes7rh Was your entire family with you as well, they were all to be on that ill fated flight? I can see how chilling that close call would be. Did you use that flight as well other years prior?
watershed44 - I was flying alone. I was 26 and single and working as an assistant manager at a movie theatre. It was a modest vacation befitting my modest salary. First time I ever flew to Baja California. Had I been on that flight, the whole composition of events would have been slightly different. Perhaps my boarding would have delayed the time of departure by 10 seconds. If the cockpit door was open I might have greeted the pilots which could have altered ever so slightly the vectors for their states of mind so that one of them might have noticed the Piper in time to adjust their heading. Or, maybe it would have happened just as it did and I would have been thrown to the ceiling amidst all the terrified screams and the roar of the engine’s reverse thrusters. It’s really horrifying to think about. As a child I had a few recurring vivid dreams about plane crashes, one involved this type of rear twin engine jet.
@robbes7rh Thanks for following up friend, so few people on YT ever do this . Yes it could have been that you being on the plane would have changed it's fate...interesting thoughts you have.
I was age 14, in Cerritos, on that street Semora Place, that morning, when I heard that sound of that plane coming down. I thought it was a bomb from the Soviet Union. It sounded like the whistle sound you hear in war movies. Then I ran outside after the loud bang, literally expecting and hoping not to have seen a nuclear bomb going off. The neighbor across the street said a jet just crashed. To this day, due to the very sharp imagination and memories I have (visualization abilities), I am still terribly afraid of flying. I was never afraid before this point. Even Captain Sully's professionalism wasn't enough to shake the horrible fear I have.
@A Frustrated Gamer you are factually correct in what you said. But all the logic in the world often cannot earn the trust of person so traumatized over what they personally experienced.
I remember reading numerous articles in the L.A Times, and many of the first responders were traumatized. Not so much what they saw, but the idea of planes crashing into a random neighborhood. And they obviously did not see or hear the crash like you had.
@Gus W I saw that one in the moment the burning plane it’s near the houses neighborhood very tragic, in addition also the JAL 123 photo without vertical stabilizer it’s terrifying.
I have friends in their mid 40’s that lived in the residential area there. What that saw on ground after the crash, to this day, they have yet to recover the horror of seeing body parts all over the streets, people’s driveways....I can’t wrap my brain around what all those people on 498 must’ve felt. I just can’t 😪
I lived about 8 streets from the plane crash. I doubt you or anyone saw body parts all over the street. I arrived on scene about 5 minutes after the crash. There was a massive pile of charcoal colored debri, primarily due to the explosion. It was impossible for me to differentiate between airplane parts, housing debri and body parts.
I worked LAX TRACON for 24 years and knew the controller pretty well. He did NOT resign; he did take a staff job. Your analysis is off a bit. The official radar recording, which uses multiple sites, shows the Piper. The radar my coworker was using did not. The old radar we were using had many "holes" in it where a/c displayed and then they didn't. He would also assume that everyone was flying by the same rules; especially since the GA a/c had no Mode C (altitude encoding). His call of traffic 10 0'clock and a mile would have them converging in about 10-20 seconds. The worst thing a controller can witness is a crash. There is NOTHING you can do yet our job is to try and do something. It was assumed that he got distracted by something north of the airport. I highly doubt that for many reasons one of which is his airspace ended at a line drawn east from the middle of the 24 & 25 runways. I could go on but 100% of the fault goes to the GA pilot. He could also have called us, got flight-following and this would have never happened. A simple radio call would have prevented this tragedy.
As a pilot that flies GA in the Dallas Fort Worth area, I never fly far without Flight Following. Now a days, it's nice having ADS-B but so many GA pilots avoid it due to costs. It's such a same. I don't know how many times I've flown into uncontrolled airports with GA cowboys not making any radio calls. I'm surprised there's not more mid air collisions even today to be honest with you.
At the time of this crash I lived in Long Beach. I was also (not that day) in ground school and had (also not that day) been taking flight lessons. I HEARD, emphasis HEARD the Piper was not in the TCA, and AeroMexico was below it where it was not suppose to be. Yup. I HEARD a flight instructor was up flying that day and saw what happened. The explanation the Piper had SPIRALED up to the altitude of impact was “questioned.” At the time, AS I RECALL the Piper pilot took off out of Torrance airport. Years after that I HEARD from an FAA employee and maybe and FAA investigator or lawyer that AeroMexico was responsible, but the FAA “ate it,” meaning took the blame because AeroMexico did not have adequate insurance/could not cover the cost of all of the losses, particularly for those who died on the ground. Again, that is what I HEARD. And, I heard there were political sensitivities because (again from what I heard and now recall) “Mexico was our ‘soft underbelly’ and the US had “things” going on in South America. I believe it happened in the proximity of a daylight savings time change (which I thought was interesting in terms of how pilots are sometimes not always optimally functioning ...). For some reason I was of the mind and maybe I HEARD the AeroMexico crew had not adjusted the altimeter out of Tijuana causing them to believe the airplane was in the TCA (upside down wedding cake area) when it was not.
Niklas Enblom So, I am curious if any report discussed the AeroMexico’s altimeter setting. And, I am wondering if the difference between Aeromexico’s last stop or where it might have set it’s altimeter might factor into where it might have actually been when it crashed. So, I am wondering if it’s altimeter height shown was correct. Then it might be compared to what the small craft’s settings were believed to have been. I guess I could go on and on. One could look at where a take-off from Torrance (or wherever it took off from) would have typically been as opposed to the theory that the small craft spiraled” up into the TCA. If the GA pilot was not to blame it would be nice for his still living family members to know....
I lived on Semora Place in Cerritos, just 3 streets to the North East. I watched as Aeromexico went over my house and hit the ground. I remember seeing the Piper falling to the ground also. Part of the tail section from the DC 9 landed on the roof of the house across the street from me. It is something that I will never forget.
I saw a piece of news footage from your neighbor whose house the tail section fell on. You might have been in the clip actually. He said he saw the tail coming down and the neighbors all shouted to run.
No. It wasn't the Piper's fault. More of ATC's. ATC didn't radio Aeromexico about the piper and neither Aeromexico's captain noticed the Piper (it was on his side of the view.), idk why everyone is blaming the Piper and not ATC and Aeromexico for not noticing it. the Piper probably did notice it and tried to move, but it was too close and it crashed because the aeromexico pilot was too stupid to see it and atc didnt radio about it.
@@swizzyman You can't seriously be blaming the Aeromexico pilot or ATC. The pipers pilot was an inexperienced, tourist that had no clue where he was going and entered into their protected air space. You are ridiculous for this type of statement. Its not Aeromexicos responisiblity to avoid the crash... its tantamount to you blaming me for hitting you with my car if you were to jump in front of it on a highway. Depending on the conditions, it may be impossible to spot you in time and avoid hitting you just as Aeromexico could not have avoided it in time. The sole responsibility falls mainly on the pipers pilot for being in a place he had no authorization/clearance to be in. Please put some thought into your statements before spewing nonsense. Good day, sir.
Hi, I know it really boils my blood what the one idiot did. What a total dick. Killed all those people because he doesn't know what he's doing. Dummy had no right having a pilots license.
@@swizzyman You're offering a pretty strong defense of the Piper pilot, when all of the facts suggest otherwise. I'm curious where it's coming from - did you know him or something? In this case the Piper pilot was the only person who we know for a fact did multiple things incorrectly that lead to this crash. He was outside of the area he should have been, he was lost, AND flying way too high so that he was in the restricted airport airspace. Because his plane was not equipped with modern technology (that was not legally required at the time) the ATC controller had no way to know his altitude or that he was flying higher than he should since the Piper wasn't talking to them (which he also was not required to do). VFR traffic regularly flies under restricted airport airspace. After the fact ATC reported not seeing him on radar at all. With the information available to them at the time, what do you think ATC should have done differently?
I missed the collision by seconds, I looked up and saw a jet passing by a, what I thought was a small cloud. It didn’t dawn on me that there was a collision. I looked down and something caught my eye, I looked up and the the jet was now inverted and going down. I yelled to my friends, Look! Look! We saw what appeared to be smoke or hydraulic fluid coming out of the tail end. I watched it until it went behind some trees. I couldn’t hear the explosion but I saw the black smoke rising. My heart sunk knowing many lives had just ended. I also noticed the little white plane going down, not like the video, but in a flat spin. I saw the horizontal stabilizer flickering in the sun as it went down. I’ll never forget :(
I shall never forget that Sunday. I was on my way from Cypress Ca to Cerritos a couple mile drive when I suddenly saw the black smoke rising from the ground. I was on the scene about 5 minutes later and watched as many ambulances arrived on scene sadly there were no victims to rescue they were all deceased . There were many homes burning and wreckage strewn about. A terrible site that has remained with me for over 30 years.
The job of an Air Traffic Controller has to be one of the most stressful in the world, especially as our skies become more and more congested. One cannot help but feel for the guy who missed this collision because of the distraction of another unauthorised aircraft, and although obviously cleared of blame, felt he could no longer carry on in that profession. A tragic case from every aspect.
My grandparents lived less than a mile away. I remember walking with my uncle to McDonald’s and seeing all the destroyer houses. I was only 6 but remember it well.
@@gofastER Holy macaroni I'll bet a seen like that would never leave your mind. So tragic for everyone involved. All because some dumb ass wanted to be a show off to his wife and daughter. Maddening at the same time.
Many of the bodies landed in the "hood" parts of L.A., I lived there then and hate to say that the street vermin were actually looting what was left of bodies. Stealing watches off of arms in trees. Yes it''strue.
@@vinrusso821 Hi Vin Russo, referring to your comment I'm half in shock and disbelief and half thinking I'm not surprised. That would first of all be extremely gross ands secondly how immoral can one be. It's just wrong in so many different ways. Any how thank you Vin for taking the time to inform us of these atrocious wrong doings. The unfortunate thing is that it gets me thinking that it probably happens every time and probably even the officials on these sites grab what they want. Just a horrible thought.
@Zak Jansen-- There are still many mid air accidents in USA in 2019.. The FAA regulations in USA are very mild, so the flight schools managers give licenses to almost any turkey that shows up with extra money for the managers. Money is more important than talent last 2 decades in USA flight schools and that is the root of so many pilot error accidents in USA. Regulations used to demand Forced Landings on take off AND EVERY LEG OF THE TRAFFIC PATTERN, over runway turning go arounds, Low GRM and more hard maneuvers.. Only good pilots allowed in USA before the millennium, Then in 2001, FAA cut all those regulations so any clod with money THAT COULD NOT DO THE ABOVE MANEUVERS (like most FAA clods) could get licenses too. Of course, they will make clumsy pilot errors and crash later on. Of course. Clods should not have pilot licenses. FAA should put back those maneuvers, but they clods cannot do them either. Im one of the one hundred CFI's in USA that can teach all the above maneuvers and also spins and Upset Maneuvers too.
When u r flying u aren’t supposed make any wrong.That too on a private flight u should be 100% attentive and alert.Its heart wrenching to see 61 people go down for no fault of their’s
What's the name of that piano track which plays in almost all videos and here also in the ending of this video? Anyone the name please or @The Flight Channel ?
I was a flight attendant for Aeromexico and had resigned a year earlier, I was shocked ,saddened and angry that because of someone’s carelessness innocent people on Aeromexico and on the ground had to die! I flew that route so many many times and wondered if any of my friends were on that flight!😥
This brings back such sad memories as an allergy doctor who I had for many years and his two young sons perished in that flight. It was supposed to be a nice fishing vacation in Mexico and ended so badly for all the people involved. RIP!
Sharlene Knaus I think I saw the wife of that doctor being interviewed on Air Crash Investigation involving the collision. She became friends with another woman who lost her husband and two of her children when the crash hit their home.
@@DENIEL381 @ You would assume that, but you have not experienced my life. The Spiritual Realm is real, God's Power is real! Sorry that you choose to be a 'skeptic', Praying you find the Truth as I have.
I remember this. I lived directly under the flight path 13 miles east of LAX in Watts, 14 miles away from this site. A couple weeks or so afterwards, I went to the crash site. Got off on Carmenita Rd from the 91 fwy. After a block or so, I saw the burn marks on the street and noticed the throngs of other lookiloos walking the street, but streets into the housing areas that sustained big damage were chain fenced off. I felt the neighbors felt violated by our nosey presence, as though it was a side show, so I simply turned around and went back home without even getting out to get a closer look. May the victims continue to RIP.
I remember this well and knew sheriff deputies that had to go there. They said to imagine seeing a chair from the aircraft still rammed into the wall of a house with the person still strapped in. Also told of seeing what looked like a Halloween mask floating in the street then realizing it was a passengers face that had been torn off. This was a very horrible accident. The people in the small plane were decapitated yet the plane was said to have glided into a field of a nearby school. Still remember seeing pictures from this.
When the Piper impacted the DC-9...the top of the Piper was sliced off by the DC-9's vertical stabilizer. The passengers in the Piper were decapitated. The impact also sheared off the Vertical Stabilizer as well.
RIP to all those who died. The one(and only) survivor I really feel for though was that ATC. I can't imagine the guilt he felt, yes we are all human and make mistakes, but IMO this poor guy didn't have the tools to do his job and that factor more than anything contributed to this crash.
The fault its the pipers even if the pilot of the piper aircraft seen the plane at the last minute the piper pilot would have maneuvered and saved everyone but he didn't see the plane
@@thecaynuck4694 but he kinda flew into restricted airspace without a transponder….even if he didn’t mean to this wouldn’t have happened had he never gotten lost
@@thecaynuck4694 he deserves every bit of blame and then some. He had no idea of his location, he didn't know the boundaries of the TCA, he climbed 700' into it, and I will bet that he wasn't monitoring ATC. He filed a flight plan and then promptly deviated from it once enroute. In airspace as crowned as that around LA, you can't just fly in the direction of your destination. You have to navigate, which means flying the headings and altitude that you planned out before the flight, and being aware of your location relative to controlled airspace. A TCA is a big yellow blot on a VFR sectional chart that's hard to miss.
I can only imagine the ATC guy thinking: "Man, if only I told the AeroMexico to go a bit faster or slower, this wouldn't have happened". But it can't be at fault.
I was there that day! I was 6 years old eating at a Bob’s Big Boy and all the lights flickered on off for a few seconds. On the way out of restaurant 2 guys were looking up in the air with their jaws wide open saying “they hit they hit” All you could see were 2 black smoke lines going to the ground, 1 small, 1 little. My family and I drove toward that way to go home and it was HELL! Smoke and the jet fuel smell! There was a big wall into housing development and over that wall was the aftermath. I couldn’t see anything but we all new what was over that wall and just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. What was real CRAZY! My mom all day kept saying that she didn’t feel right that day and something bad might happen, NO JOKE! She never said stuff like that before or since!
lets wander around "lost above LA" and not notice the large LAX airport that has high traffic volume, and be at an altitude much higher than we are supposed to be. what could possible go wrong. smh.
Back then it was quite easy to mistakenly wander into terminal (now called class b) airspace. I learned to fly back in the late 90’s when GPS was just starting to come out. None of our flight school aircraft had it till the mid 2000’s. My first solo flights away from the airport were made with just a folded paper map and a course calculated from winds aloft forecasts. Now private pilots can literally have a moving aeronautical map on there phones so airspace incursions are far less frequent. You’d have to be extremely negligent to accidentally fly into terminal (class b) airspace unknowingly these days.
This is especially stomach turning for me because I saw the fireball and plume of smoke on the corner of Crescent and Valley View and had no idea what it was. I was heading to the OP Pro in Huntington Beach with my older friend. I was 15 yrs old. A riot started that same day after Mark Occillupo won the OP Pro. I will never forget that day. I also had some school mates who lived in the crash zone. They never returned to school. I never knew what happened to them other then reports that they were severely traumitized. Rumors about body parts in their yards, trees and on roofs stuff like that. Sad day for many families.
Smile SurferStyle the body parts is true, seen plenty of aftermath pictures many through corrupt officials who leak them in the dark web. On point of impact the explosion and sheer forces breaks up human bodies into pieces. One of the most common is all the meat coming clean off the bones while the bones burn and disintegrate. The meat and all the organs go flying off splattering in the vicinity away from the crash. Which is what your friends probably saw. In other words an intact human just without bones. So what your classmates saw is something that would really leave them messed up unless they’ve been trained to go to war... even then... or are law enforcement or rescue/medical personnel who are desensitized to this exact situation. Rest assured it was an instant death. Their nerves didn’t even have a chance to react to pain.
I watched this crash from my house on Stowers Street in Cerritos , about 500 yards away on that fateful day. It killed some kids that I went to high school with. Such a tragedy. Me and my brother ran towards the crash and were turned back by the heat and smoke. I felt so helpless. I became a Fire/Paramedic years later. May they Rest In Peace.
I remember this accident well. I was living in socal at the time and my gf lived in Cerritos where the accident occurred. No cell phones in those days. I'll never forget seeing the smoke and thought it was just an industrial fire. I had no idea it was a plane crash until I got to my gfs house and turned on the TV
Great job FC. Hearing the transmissions of ATC and the pilot really add to the emotional impact of this video. The loss of lives here mandated a common sense requirement. Thank you for showing this event.
Completely agree. Had I flown anywhere near the area in my little plane, that would have been on the plane, if I had to get out there to put it in. This whole area is so congested...
@C7042 Exactly none of those are required for TCAS. Mode S is only for TCAS II to give mutually divergent resolution advisories. GPS is not used for TCAS at all. You’re confusing it with EGPWS. ADS-B also isn’t required for it, since it is very new.
Remember that ATC in, I think it was Europe, (I know, that “really narrows it down!”) Sorry, I don’t recall the details of that crash..but the father of a crash victim tracked down the ATC - and stabbed him to death.
Chnet Gamer ....Excellent...Yea that’s it! I watch so many plane crash investigations videos, I lose track of the facts....Thanks for that link!....Oh wow, just read it...the guy who stabbed the ATC lost two children and his wife in that accident....
So so true☹️, "sacrifices"!? Not questioning God, but why human sacrifices to better issues! R.I.P. souls & hopefully the other life that came afterwards, are 7 x's greater than the last!😇
No. It wasn't the Piper's fault. More of ATC's. ATC didn't radio Aeromexico about the piper and neither Aeromexico's captain noticed the Piper (it was on his side of the view.), idk why everyone is blaming the Piper and not ATC and Aeromexico for not noticing it. the Piper probably did notice it and tried to move, but it was too close and it crashed because the aeromexico pilot was too stupid to see it and atc didnt radio about it.
I lived very near there at the time. The Piper came down in a flat spin in the field of a local school, the top of the canopy sheared off by the impact and one of the wings was covered in blood from the passengers who wear decapitated. The plane came down on a house where a birthday party was happening, everyone there was killed, my sister was two streets north of the accident, she heard the jet, looked out her front window and watched the jet hit the ground, one of my then co-workers had one of the landing wheels fall into his backyard and one I work with today had a body land on their roof. I went over to my sisters immediately afterwords, my then brother in law had gone over immediately after the crash to see if he could help, came back and said you do not want to go over there, as there were body parts, wreckage and fire everywhere, so I stayed away. I had to leave when the FAA ordered to entire area off limits, residents couldn't leave or enter once it was shut off. I had to take groceries to the cordon line to give my sister as if they left they couldn't come back in, this was for about two days IIRC. The sickest part of all this was the gawkers who showed up in droves almost immediately after the crash. According to my B-I-L, before the police or fire departments were able to establish a barrier around the crash site, numbers of gawkers came in, with their kids no less! to gawk and at the destruction in the crash zone. I honestly hope to this day that every one of them had to spend thousands of dollars on therapy for their kids after exposing them to that kind of horror.
Speaking of mid-air collisions, I'm dreading the day some fool with a drone flies it into a jet taking off/landing and having it be sucked into an engine. Been too many reports lately of drones and planes getting too close to each other.
Good point. I hope it never happens. I hope everyone knows not to fly drones near an airport. Also I don't think drones fly high enough to pose a problem when planes are at cruising height.
It has already happened 3 times. Twice in 2017 with a black hawk helicopter and a Beech King Air A100 and once in 2018 with a hot air balloon. None of these resulting in a crash but still mid air collisions.
Newer drones have geo-fencing which prevents them from taking off in or around high-density airspace. Of course, there will still be incursions but this is a good first step.
My dear husband used to fly these light aircraft. He loved flying. Piper's he used to mention them a lot. May he rest in peace. No he didn't die in a plane crash. Natural causes.🙊
Mexicana Flight 940 , also MEX - LAX , on 3/31/86 , crashed in mountains north of Mexico City. 167 souls perished, the deadliest involving the Boeing 727-200. In Flight fire due to compressed air in the center landing gear tire , instead of nitrogen.The exploding tire , leading to in flight fire , led to loss of hydraulic and electrical systems. AF 4590 , caused by a burst tire on take-off. RIP to all the victims of these terrible disasters. Thanks again to the flight channel. Live your lives to the fullest folks , we never know when our time is up.
Yeap, The managers made the mechanics add lots of air to the tires instead of hydrogen as needed. THE MANAGERS were the killers. The mechanics have to do what the managers say.
That´s so sad :( i can only imagine what they where thinking when going towards the ground :( R.I.P i hope people "Born again" in better life . we dont know what was before this life that we are living now. its just mind blowing when thinking it and "trying to remember" what was before this.
Why do you worry so much about your previous life...? It's gone, finished, over...nothing can ever be changed about it. It's just a page in your book of lives as a human being. Better concentrate on this one, trying to make the best out of it, as it is so brief and we don't know when God will call us back home again...it might be tomorrow.
Jennifer Kelly ~ you are right in someways. But I don’t think that person was dwelling on the past for long periods of time, more like a brief thought as to what was before. At some point everybody thinks something along those lines briefly. It’s human nature to philosophize and natural. To dwell on it obsessively, is something else.
I remembered that tragic day. I was at work in city of Paramount about a few miles away. I remembered people were screening about a plane crash in Cerritos and it was so surreal. RIP for all those victims.
This occurred 2 miles north of where I lived. I was coming home from Las Vegas that day. I still think about it often when I pass the area. Many people I knew saw the planes going down sadly.
Thank you for another excellent video! This crash and PSA Flight 182 have always been crashes that have caught my attention for a variety of reasons (a couple being that they're so close to each other in location and date all things considered) and I'm glad to see you've covered one of the crashes.
We were close friends with a family that lived just a block away from the impact site of the DC-9. We visited their house often. There was an elementary school down the street from where the Piper impacted.
I remember this well, I was at Sacramento airport waiting for my flight home to Los Angeles when I heard some people talking about a crash that had just happened over Los Angeles , very sad situation
What an amazing channel! Clearly a lot of hard work and info gathering was put into these awesome videos! Keep them coming and many thanks from us all!
Your Channel to me, is the #1 Channel in reference to this topic! Unparalleled! Thank you for your efforts! MICHAEL 🙏! Former United States Army Military Police Officer! God Bless America!!
Thanks again for another excellent video. Feel sorry for all involved, and especially those who died. For the ATC guy it must have been an horrible, and traumatic experience, it appears he was exonerated , as he was allowed to resume his career, but I can imagine how he felt unable to continue.
Im really glad your doing this. Thank you! Your very professional and VERY talented!!! Im honored to be able to share the tragedies that happened on these flights. God Bless you
I work in aviation as a mechanic and I watch these videos as a reminder how important my job is to do it right. I know this reenactment was pilot error but sometimes it's mechanical
My heart aches for these people and what they endured knowing that they were going to die this way. Prayers for their families and friends. I'm terrified of flying. 😢
Me too, especially when watching these vids but the reassurance the videos give of how each crash makes the airlines and FAA and airports etc beef up security and safety measures to make sure these incidents don't happen again, makes me feel a little safer.
I remember this! I was in North Hollywood with my boyfriend and it just missed his grandmother's house in Cerritos by two streets. First time I ever saw him cry
Wow amazing I was 13 when this crash happened I remember that day, I remember seeing that crash site with the destruction and the lives that was lost. Thank you very much for this information showing how this tragic accident happened because I was afraid of flying due to seeing this accident as a young kid. Thank you sooo much. I will never forget the Cerritos Air Disaster. RIP to all that lost there lives that Sunday afternoon.
the flight channel's videos with the computer simulation and the actual cockpit talk are very effective, and it is scary indeed to watch some of this stuff this stuff..Im getting a real feel
This would be a great video for every student pilot to watch. Explains the importance of looking for traffic, knowing where you are in air space, and why the Mode C ring around large airports is there along with why transponder use is important.
I remember this, I had to go to that part of town the day after and from a hill I could see the neighborhood in Cerritos all destroyed,parts of the aircraft scattered ,still smolldering, the smell of burnt wood and hey fuel, very sad
I remember this crash in 1986. I had hoped after the PSA Crash in San Diego in1978. That we would see no more of these type crashes. Sadly we did and also in So Calif. Thankfully valuable lessons were learned, to prevent future collisions.
Actually, the whole crash was caused by ATC and flight 496 (i think that's the number) since ATC didn't radio to 496 and aeromexico pilot was too stupid to see it.
@@swizzyman stop chatting gibberish mate. The Aeromexico flight crew had no fault for the crash whatsoever. The investigation itself proved they had little to no time to react even if they spotted the Piper. And it's funny how you focus so much on finding blame on who literally has none whatsoever and completely forgetting the one plane that was literally somewhere it was not supposed to be with a clueless pilot unable to even contact the ATC.
My wife and I were living in Cerritos and at the time of the incident. We had just finished Sunday breakfast at a cracker barrel in La Palma. And, walked out and saw the smoke from the mid-air. The wreckage of the piper landed in the elementary school yard, where are son's attended.
This is so crazy. A very similar accident to this one also happened in San Diego in 1978 in which a PSA flight collided with a Cessna. So, so sad that either of those crashes happened.
I remember that day , I was two miles away out side my friends house, when I heard something , then minute later?, I saw black smoke up in the sky .my friend was at the local S.F.S. swapmeet that morning ,he saw the small plane coming down in a spin..
Amazing that there is an actual photograph of DC-9 dropping out of the sky. I lived some 45 minutes away from Cerritos and I remember this like it was yesterday. RIP.
@jeff Exactly. One thing that stuck with me was when the ATC guy mentions that a unidentified plane is in the area and the flight level was NOT known. I would have been VERY leery at that point. Anyone else? I kept getting the creeps right after that radio communication by the controller.
It's a great shame that it takes a tragedy such as this to bring in mandatory instrumentation which would have almost certainly saved everyone's life that fateful day. Another unbelievably good video by TFC, love it!
@@GiordanDiodato And your point is? try telling the the loved one's of the people that died their life was not worth 65,000 dollars. If there is one blessing it's the fact it was a passenger liner and a small piper. It could have been two fully loaded passenger planes
@@WayneM1961 - TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) was still in development and not operationally certified at the time of this crash in August 1986.
@@HPG747 TCAS would have done nothing. If you watch and listen to the video the military aircraft had its transponder switched off and had degraded radar. It should never have been allowed off the ground.
This was about two miles from where I live at the time off of Bloomfield. I remember seeing the Piper sitting in the schools grass playground, there was blood streams all over what was left. They all were decapitated. What's really crazy is I worked directly across the street from Zamperini Field, aka Torrance Air Port on PCH where the Piper took off from.
I lived in Fort Walton Beach, Florida when this happened and was taking a nap. I had a very vivid dream. I was in a crash position on a plane, sat up, looked to my left and kept (mental telepathy) telling a small group of people but mainly a child I felt was a boy with dark hair about 9, 10 or 11 years old "don't be afraid" over and over. Next I was on the ground sitting and my mind thought I was seeing steel train tracks. Then I realized it was a plane and I saw parts around me. I awoke sitting straight up, called my husband and told him my dream. The next day there was a photo and story of the plane crash. I was IN that plane with the child and group of people with or near him. I will never forget that dream. That child was not afraid and I was not afraid as we looked into each others eyes.
Another high class production of this channel. I must admit that this channel became my favorite youtube channel. Poor ATC guy. Felt sorry for him as much as I felt sorry for those who tragically lost their lives. RIP :(
My parents lived on Reva at the other end of the block and my Uncle Perry lived across the street. They happened to be visiting us in Tucson when it happened. Sad day for the neighborhood.
RIP to those who died in this mid-air collision, and the ATC guy resigned traumatized after the crash. TheFlightChannel, it's been so long since I was asking for Lauda Air 004 or Birgenair 301, I like your videos and nice job as always! ;)
I was sailing just off the Huntington Beach Pier when this happened. At the same exact time there was a riot going on at the Pier due to the Surf Contest....There was alot of Negative Energy focused on the area that day............
Elaine Ricketts I remember that. I spent a lot of time in HB. It was my birthday and I was working 😞 near South Coast Plaza, actually in the same shopping center where that small plane went down a couple of years ago. HB was more of an event for me because of its proximity. Did you see anything from Cerritos from where you were?
I can't get my head around how the piper pilot didn't see the DC-9 coming, I feel like had he been paying attention, he could've pulled up and save a lot of lifes
The DC9 was approaching at a 90 degree angle and at a high rate of speed. Its not that easy to spot the DC9 quickly, its much more difficult than it seems to spot any aircraft when flying than it is on paper or to a non pilot
I know of one midair over Corona, Cal., around 2006/2007. Happened near Corona airport. The Wreckage almost came down on the building I worked in. In fact, one of the engines from the midair went through the roof of a car dealership parts dept., and killed the man working behind the counter.
As noted on Air Crash Investigations the stabilizer of the DC-9 cut off the top of the Piper’s cabin along with the three passengers - the wreck of the Piper had one of its wings “painted” red.
The beauty of the internet.... you can respond to any event, tragic or wonderful, and you can make yourself a part of the story and people will believe you and give you the attention you want, totally anonymous attention you crave.
Strange how the TV show Energency ran a story about a mid air collision a few years before. Not that the two are connected, but they were very aware of the possibility over California’s busy skies!
Wow that IS interesting! I wonder if there had been other very close calls that the writers and producers might have heard about from contacts. That show had many consultants from police, fire, and other agencies that would help the producers make the show as realistic as possible.
Another well done video TFC. I didn’t know TCAS wasn’t required at one time, I couldn’t understand how this accident happened until you explained that part. Thanks, and nice work.
![ตีสิบเดย์ [FULL] | เปิดใจ "อาจารย์ เบียร์ ฅนตื่นธรรม" นักสนทนาธรรมสายดุดัน!](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vqaBI_mnoDk/mqdefault.jpg)
That was so sad to watch 😳. The pilot saying, "Oh no...This can't be!", broke my heart. He knew there was no way to recover from that dive.
i see that emoji as someone with puppy eyes blushing :/ but yeah
that indeed was sad
I would have thought that it would have been more like: Ay caramba!! Dios Mio!!!"
@@vernonsmithee792 can sombody translate that last part
Really
I remember my family being in tears because my uncle had a seat on that flight, he tried to call the family to let everyone know that he missed the flight but everyone was on the way to the airport to get him , when we arrived we were ushered into an area where we were told the news ,
Hours later my aunt returned home and sees my uncle sitting there and passes out , so she had to be hospitalized that night ,
It was a crazy day for all of us ,
That must be some crazy day
So sad 😭 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😖😖😖😖😖😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
yeah liar
XxKaiserGamesxX Shut Up
maybe hes lying or no.i do trust him.
I was an air traffic controller in ZTL for twenty years, and things like this were my worst nightmare. Luckily, I had no errors, and no airspace violations. I know that we sound robotic and unempathic when the you hear the tapes, but I assure you our hearts are in our throats.
Terribly underappreciated job. You have balls of steel.
I knew many ATC's and it was a highly stressful job and it takes a psychological toll on them especially the ones who were on duty during the crash of Flight 427 in Pittsburgh due to the mechanical failure of the rudder. Some of them retired shortly after that. It's terrible knowing a flight has gone down and there was nothing that you could have done about it.
Thank you for what you did sir. I can tell you guys care.
My husband is ATC for the British Air force and he can't stomach to watch these kind of videos. It's just heartbreaking isn't it, you all definitely do have a heart
well it was los angeles in the 80's, with bunch of new richs in California, the quality of the airspace fall.
I'd been dismissing this channel in the past because it looked a bit too animated and had no one speaking. I sat and watched some of these videos recently and am absolutely amazed by how captivating and educational they are. They are so well done and now this is my joint favourite channel in learning a little about aircraft. Thank you TheFlightChannel is making such awesome videos. From the UK.
I’ve learned more about planes from this and other sources than I really need to. Fascinating stuff yet also sad when so much could have been avoided. This is a great channel.
Also from the UK.
Same here. Always passed these up, finally one day started watching them, ...I don't fly a plane but damn if these videos don't make me want to start flying quality simulators.
I've been binge watching these videos for the past 2 weeks.
His videos are ok. He basically just copy/pastes the Wikipedia articles for each crash over a simulator of the flight.........
An even better way to get the stories on these crashes is to watch air disasters on smithsonian channel.
@@dsandoval9396 ...watch air disasters on smithsonian channel. Much better for the whole story and accuracy. Here, the plane is not even the right color.
that picture where the plane is in an inverted plunge to the ground really captures the horror that those people on that plane were experiencing. RIP flight 498
I wait you to my channel ❤️
It is also not stated that the pilot of the Piper PA was ruled at autopsy to have suffered a fatal heart attack rendering him incapable of flying his aircraft. The Piper aircraft suddenly increased its climb hitting the Areomexico DC's tail and stabilizers with the horizontal stabilizer slicing through the tail rendering the DC9 inoperable and causing the aircraft to plunge into an inverted nose dive. The DC9 crashed into a busy subdivision where families were celebrating the Labor Day holiday with picnics and bbqs.
It was determined by the FAA that the fatal heart attack of the Piper PA pilot to be the primary cause of the collision with the Aeromexico jet over Cerritos as the fatal heart event caused the Piper pilot continued his climb. (The Piper pilot had also not made any contact with LA Flight Control. The Piper pilot was flying under Visual Flight Rules. I lived in Torrance(the correct spelling) at the time and this crash was reported extensively in all manner of newsmedia of the time. The Daily Breeze published in Torrance and the Los Angeles Times as well as every local news channel. The ATC was found to be not at fault, while the fatal heart event of the pilot in the Piper was deemed to be the primary cause of the mid air collision. The pilot of the Piper lived in Palos Verdes, just up the hill from the Torrance Airport and flew from there frequently. He and his wife and daughter were flying to Big Bear Lake for the Labor Day holiday.
@@mhoffe maybe he had a heart attck after the collision?
@ I'm familiar with that terrible crash. Horrible. Another crash, PSA 1771, though it wasn't a collision, involved a disgruntled ex-employee who shot the pilots and some others and put the plane full throttle straight down vertically. The plane going down even surpassed the speed of sound. The G-Forces "experienced a deceleration of 5,000 times the force of gravity (G-force) when it hit the ground." (Fighter pilots sometimes reach 9 Gs.) Complete disintegration of plane and people.
An episode was on Air Disasters, Season 3/Episode 3 "I'm The Problem". Can't wrap my head around it. Cause was ruled murder/suicide.
@@mhoffe It was in a piper lol not a cessna.
God, the air traffic controller giving the pilot normal directions as the plane is plunging to the ground is so eerie.
I lived in Cerritos when this happened. My little sisters boyfriend died when a piece of the plane landed on his house. Ill never forget how unreal it felt and all the lives lost on the planes and on the ground.
shellygib50 Gibson So sorry..👏👏👏👏
So sorry😟
My friend perished on that flight
Mark Corella
Ill never forget how unreal it felt .. Very well put.
@@CaptainSmith23 What was his name?
I had a ticket for this very flight that would have been returning me from vacationing in Baja to Los Angeles on a Sunday afternoon. Only I was having a lousy time in Loreto and decided to return early and rescheduled to return on Friday instead of Sunday. It's a once daily flight and probably it was the same pilots and crew that I flew with on Friday were the ones that perished in that awful accident in the skies over Cerritos. Imagine that: my inability to enjoy myself on vacation saved my life. I no longer fly.
@robbes7rh
Was your entire family with you as well, they were all to be on that ill fated flight? I can see how chilling that close call would be. Did you use that flight as well other years prior?
.....
watershed44 - I was flying alone. I was 26 and single and working as an assistant manager at a movie theatre. It was a modest vacation befitting my modest salary. First time I ever flew to Baja California. Had I been on that flight, the whole composition of events would have been slightly different. Perhaps my boarding would have delayed the time of departure by 10 seconds. If the cockpit door was open I might have greeted the pilots which could have altered ever so slightly the vectors for their states of mind so that one of them might have noticed the Piper in time to adjust their heading. Or, maybe it would have happened just as it did and I would have been thrown to the ceiling amidst all the terrified screams and the roar of the engine’s reverse thrusters. It’s really horrifying to think about. As a child I had a few recurring vivid dreams about plane crashes, one involved this type of rear twin engine jet.
@robbes7rh
Thanks for following up friend, so few people on YT ever do this .
Yes it could have been that you being on the plane would have changed it's fate...interesting thoughts you have.
robbes7rh thank God you followed your instincts
I was age 14, in Cerritos, on that street Semora Place, that morning, when I heard that sound of that plane coming down. I thought it was a bomb from the Soviet Union. It sounded like the whistle sound you hear in war movies. Then I ran outside after the loud bang, literally expecting and hoping not to have seen a nuclear bomb going off. The neighbor across the street said a jet just crashed. To this day, due to the very sharp imagination and memories I have (visualization abilities), I am still terribly afraid of flying. I was never afraid before this point. Even Captain Sully's professionalism wasn't enough to shake the horrible fear I have.
@A Frustrated Gamer you are factually correct in what you said. But all the logic in the world often cannot earn the trust of person so traumatized over what they personally experienced.
I remember reading numerous articles in the L.A Times, and many of the first responders were traumatized. Not so much what they saw, but the idea of planes crashing into a random neighborhood. And they obviously did not see or hear the crash like you had.
A Frustrated Gamer Did you think twice about using the word “Plummeted”? I don’t think that will reassure the fearful flier.
Thinks nuclear bomb is going off.
*Goes outside to check*
Sure
The comments section of people's personal accounts, while heartbreaking, is nearly as captivating as the video. Thank you for sharing.
Most people who say that just fake it to get likes and attention
A
Never have read them! Thanks for heads up! I will from now on!
@@Xkh514 I think most of them are genuine.
That last photo of the plane was tragic. 😥
I think the loss of life was more tragic.
@@williepierce3933 and that's exactly what the photo shows. The last moments of life.
@Gus W I saw that one in the moment the burning plane it’s near the houses neighborhood very tragic, in addition also the JAL 123 photo without vertical stabilizer it’s terrifying.
PSA 182
@ I know. That was pretty tragic too.
I have friends in their mid 40’s that lived in the residential area there. What that saw on ground after the crash, to this day, they have yet to recover the horror of seeing body parts all over the streets, people’s driveways....I can’t wrap my brain around what all those people on 498 must’ve felt. I just can’t 😪
I lived about 8 streets from the plane crash. I doubt you or anyone saw body parts all over the street. I arrived on scene about 5 minutes after the crash. There was a massive pile of charcoal colored debri, primarily due to the explosion. It was impossible for me to differentiate between airplane parts, housing debri and body parts.
I worked LAX TRACON for 24 years and knew the controller pretty well. He did NOT resign; he did take a staff job. Your analysis is off a bit. The official radar recording, which uses multiple sites, shows the Piper. The radar my coworker was using did not. The old radar we were using had many "holes" in it where a/c displayed and then they didn't. He would also assume that everyone was flying by the same rules; especially since the GA a/c had no Mode C (altitude encoding). His call of traffic 10 0'clock and a mile would have them converging in about 10-20 seconds. The worst thing a controller can witness is a crash. There is NOTHING you can do yet our job is to try and do something. It was assumed that he got distracted by something north of the airport. I highly doubt that for many reasons one of which is his airspace ended at a line drawn east from the middle of the 24 & 25 runways. I could go on but 100% of the fault goes to the GA pilot. He could also have called us, got flight-following and this would have never happened. A simple radio call would have prevented this tragedy.
The video does say he resigned from being an ATC controller. Not that he resigned.
As a pilot that flies GA in the Dallas Fort Worth area, I never fly far without Flight Following. Now a days, it's nice having ADS-B but so many GA pilots avoid it due to costs. It's such a same. I don't know how many times I've flown into uncontrolled airports with GA cowboys not making any radio calls. I'm surprised there's not more mid air collisions even today to be honest with you.
At the time of this crash I lived in Long Beach. I was also (not that day) in ground school and had (also not that day) been taking flight lessons. I HEARD, emphasis HEARD the Piper was not in the TCA, and AeroMexico was below it where it was not suppose to be. Yup. I HEARD a flight instructor was up flying that day and saw what happened. The explanation the Piper had SPIRALED up to the altitude of impact was “questioned.” At the time, AS I RECALL the Piper pilot took off out of Torrance airport.
Years after that I HEARD from an FAA employee and maybe and FAA investigator or lawyer that AeroMexico was responsible, but the FAA “ate it,” meaning took the blame because AeroMexico did not have adequate insurance/could not cover the cost of all of the losses, particularly for those who died on the ground. Again, that is what I HEARD. And, I heard there were political sensitivities because (again from what I heard and now recall) “Mexico was our ‘soft underbelly’ and the US had “things” going on in South America.
I believe it happened in the proximity of a daylight savings time change (which I thought was interesting in terms of how pilots are sometimes not always optimally functioning ...). For some reason I was of the mind and maybe I HEARD the AeroMexico crew had not adjusted the altimeter out of Tijuana causing them to believe the airplane was in the TCA (upside down wedding cake area) when it was not.
Thanks for the information.
Niklas Enblom So, I am curious if any report discussed the AeroMexico’s altimeter setting. And, I am wondering if the difference between Aeromexico’s last stop or where it might have set it’s altimeter might factor into where it might have actually been when it crashed. So, I am wondering if it’s altimeter height shown was correct. Then it might be compared to what the small craft’s settings were believed to have been. I guess I could go on and on. One could look at where a take-off from Torrance (or wherever it took off from) would have typically been as opposed to the theory that the small craft spiraled” up into the TCA.
If the GA pilot was not to blame it would be nice for his still living family members to know....
Though it's a simulation, the cockpits views are terrifying at crash.. it would have been blood-curdling for those pilots.. RIP..
Not to mention the passengers, they had enough time to know their fate,
I truly feel terrible for their horror at the end. RIP souls.
Vignesh Kumar The Kramers actually got decapitated when the stabilizer smashed through.
It was for the Aeromexico pilots. The pier's folks were decapitated so they were already dead.
@@timmy841212 P koi
so many rich amateur idiots who barely knows to fly in vfr in their private plane, and almost zero to fly in ifr.. including the Piper pilot
I lived on Semora Place in Cerritos, just 3 streets to the North East. I watched as Aeromexico went over my house and hit the ground. I remember seeing the Piper falling to the ground also. Part of the tail section from the DC 9 landed on the roof of the house across the street from me. It is something that I will never forget.
I saw a piece of news footage from your neighbor whose house the tail section fell on. You might have been in the clip actually. He said he saw the tail coming down and the neighbors all shouted to run.
7:36 "This....cant be...."
:( sorry Captain and everyone. Because of some out of town idiot everyone even 15 on the ground died unnecessarily.
No. It wasn't the Piper's fault. More of ATC's. ATC didn't radio Aeromexico about the piper and neither Aeromexico's captain noticed the Piper (it was on his side of the view.), idk why everyone is blaming the Piper and not ATC and Aeromexico for not noticing it. the Piper probably did notice it and tried to move, but it was too close and it crashed because the aeromexico pilot was too stupid to see it and atc didnt radio about it.
@@swizzyman You can't seriously be blaming the Aeromexico pilot or ATC. The pipers pilot was an inexperienced, tourist that had no clue where he was going and entered into their protected air space. You are ridiculous for this type of statement. Its not Aeromexicos responisiblity to avoid the crash... its tantamount to you blaming me for hitting you with my car if you were to jump in front of it on a highway. Depending on the conditions, it may be impossible to spot you in time and avoid hitting you just as Aeromexico could not have avoided it in time. The sole responsibility falls mainly on the pipers pilot for being in a place he had no authorization/clearance to be in. Please put some thought into your statements before spewing nonsense. Good day, sir.
Hi, I know it really boils my blood what the one idiot did. What a total dick. Killed all those people because he doesn't know what he's doing. Dummy had no right having a pilots license.
231 flying hours in a completely new town with no traffic control help that idiot on piper is to blame period.
@@swizzyman You're offering a pretty strong defense of the Piper pilot, when all of the facts suggest otherwise. I'm curious where it's coming from - did you know him or something? In this case the Piper pilot was the only person who we know for a fact did multiple things incorrectly that lead to this crash. He was outside of the area he should have been, he was lost, AND flying way too high so that he was in the restricted airport airspace. Because his plane was not equipped with modern technology (that was not legally required at the time) the ATC controller had no way to know his altitude or that he was flying higher than he should since the Piper wasn't talking to them (which he also was not required to do). VFR traffic regularly flies under restricted airport airspace. After the fact ATC reported not seeing him on radar at all. With the information available to them at the time, what do you think ATC should have done differently?
I missed the collision by seconds, I looked up and saw a jet passing by a, what I thought was a small cloud. It didn’t dawn on me that there was a collision. I looked down and something caught my eye, I looked up and the the jet was now inverted and going down. I yelled to my friends, Look! Look! We saw what appeared to be smoke or hydraulic fluid coming out of the tail end. I watched it until it went behind some trees. I couldn’t hear the explosion but I saw the black smoke rising. My heart sunk knowing many lives had just ended. I also noticed the little white plane going down, not like the video, but in a flat spin. I saw the horizontal stabilizer flickering in the sun as it went down. I’ll never forget :(
Thank you for sharing that most have been horrifying
🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺💔💔💔💔💔🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
I shall never forget that Sunday. I was on my way from Cypress Ca to Cerritos a couple mile drive when I suddenly saw the black smoke rising from the ground. I was on the scene about 5 minutes later and watched as many ambulances arrived on scene sadly there were no victims to rescue they were all deceased . There were many homes burning and wreckage strewn about. A terrible site that has remained with me for over 30 years.
Awful
Sure
@@allgrainbrewer10 shut up
@@stephanieritter4771 😀. Nah.
@@allgrainbrewer10 ok troll
The job of an Air Traffic Controller has to be one of the most stressful in the world, especially as our skies become more and more congested. One cannot help but feel for the guy who missed this collision because of the distraction of another unauthorised aircraft, and although obviously cleared of blame, felt he could no longer carry on in that profession. A tragic case from every aspect.
This is scary. Imagine being with your family and suddenly a plane crashed into your house. :( Rip.
My grandparents lived less than a mile away. I remember walking with my uncle to McDonald’s and seeing all the destroyer houses. I was only 6 but remember it well.
@@gofastER hol uppp
@@gofastER Holy macaroni I'll bet a seen like that would never leave your mind. So tragic for everyone involved. All because some dumb ass wanted to be a show off to his wife and daughter. Maddening at the same time.
Many of the bodies landed in the "hood" parts of L.A., I lived there then and hate to say that the street vermin were actually looting what was left of bodies. Stealing watches off of arms in trees. Yes it''strue.
@@vinrusso821 Hi Vin Russo, referring to your comment I'm half in shock and disbelief and half thinking I'm not surprised. That would first of all be extremely gross ands secondly how immoral can one be. It's just wrong in so many different ways. Any how thank you Vin for taking the time to inform us of these atrocious wrong doings. The unfortunate thing is that it gets me thinking that it probably happens every time and probably even the officials on these sites grab what they want. Just a horrible thought.
I'm angry with the flyer of the small plane that got lost. He killed his family by being an idiot, as well as all those people.
@Zak Jansen-- There are still many mid air accidents in USA in 2019.. The FAA regulations in USA are very mild, so the flight schools managers give licenses to almost any turkey that shows up with extra money for the managers. Money is more important than talent last 2 decades in USA flight schools and that is the root of so many pilot error accidents in USA. Regulations used to demand Forced Landings on take off AND EVERY LEG OF THE TRAFFIC PATTERN, over runway turning go arounds, Low GRM and more hard maneuvers.. Only good pilots allowed in USA before the millennium,
Then in 2001, FAA cut all those regulations so any clod with money THAT COULD NOT DO THE ABOVE MANEUVERS (like most FAA clods) could get licenses too. Of course, they will make clumsy pilot errors and crash later on. Of course. Clods should not have pilot licenses. FAA should put back those maneuvers, but they clods cannot do them either. Im one of the one hundred CFI's in USA that can teach all the above maneuvers and also spins and Upset Maneuvers too.
I agree. What the hell was he thinking?? Sad thing there were lots of pilots like this back then.
Very irresponsible sob.hv no sympathy for him.criminal act.
Airport 1975
When u r flying u aren’t supposed make any wrong.That too on a private flight u should be 100% attentive and alert.Its heart wrenching to see 61 people go down for no fault of their’s
As a kid who loved aviation, I remember being absolutely devastated by the photo of the DC-9 trailing smoke headed straight down.
Inverted at that.
The theme music captures the emotion so perfectly I feel it. Love your work.
my channel should be 1000 subscribe can you help me
What's the name of that piano track which plays in almost all videos and here also in the ending of this video? Anyone the name please or @The Flight Channel ?
@@UditOjha Sounds like something by Ludovico Einaudi. A bit sentimental for my tastes, but it has its merits.
@@patrickneylan no it's not. The starting music is Ross Budgen- Reverie
Like my comment if you found the song.
I found it by myself though.
I was a flight attendant for Aeromexico and had resigned a year earlier, I was shocked ,saddened and angry that because of someone’s carelessness innocent people on Aeromexico and on the ground had to die! I flew that route so many many times and wondered if any of my friends were on that flight!😥
This brings back such sad memories as an allergy doctor who I had for many years and his two young sons perished in that flight. It was supposed to be a nice fishing vacation in Mexico and ended so badly for all the people involved. RIP!
LIFE IS A MYSTERY AND NOBODY HAS ANSWERS .RIP
Sharlene Knaus I think I saw the wife of that doctor being interviewed on Air Crash Investigation involving the collision. She became friends with another woman who lost her husband and two of her children when the crash hit their home.
@@denieledwards6893 Jesus does, He Saved my Life & still does to this day.
@@christisking1316 YOU SAVED YOUR OWN LIFE PERIOD.
@@DENIEL381 @ You would assume that, but you have not experienced my life. The Spiritual Realm is real, God's Power is real! Sorry that you choose to be a 'skeptic', Praying you find the Truth as I have.
I remember this. I lived directly under the flight path 13 miles east of LAX in Watts, 14 miles away from this site. A couple weeks or so afterwards, I went to the crash site. Got off on Carmenita Rd from the 91 fwy. After a block or so, I saw the burn marks on the street and noticed the throngs of other lookiloos walking the street, but streets into the housing areas that sustained big damage were chain fenced off. I felt the neighbors felt violated by our nosey presence, as though it was a side show, so I simply turned around and went back home without even getting out to get a closer look. May the victims continue to RIP.
I remember this well and knew sheriff deputies that had to go there. They said to imagine seeing a chair from the aircraft still rammed into the wall of a house with the person still strapped in. Also told of seeing what looked like a Halloween mask floating in the street then realizing it was a passengers face that had been torn off. This was a very horrible accident. The people in the small plane were decapitated yet the plane was said to have glided into a field of a nearby school. Still remember seeing pictures from this.
OMG
Geez.. brutal
When the Piper impacted the DC-9...the top of the Piper was sliced off by the DC-9's vertical stabilizer. The passengers in the Piper were decapitated. The impact also sheared off the Vertical Stabilizer as well.
Do you know where I can see pics
Kyle J best gore
I clearly remember this. I was 7 years old, and my moms boss lived in the city of Cerritos.....Rest in Peace to those who pass away.
RIP to all those who died. The one(and only) survivor I really feel for though was that ATC. I can't imagine the guilt he felt, yes we are all human and make mistakes, but IMO this poor guy didn't have the tools to do his job and that factor more than anything contributed to this crash.
The fault its the pipers even if the pilot of the piper aircraft seen the plane at the last minute the piper pilot would have maneuvered and saved everyone but he didn't see the plane
@@gamermodderzz1237 It was impossible for the Piper pilot to see the DC-9, so I wouldn't blame him here
@@thecaynuck4694 but he kinda flew into restricted airspace without a transponder….even if he didn’t mean to this wouldn’t have happened had he never gotten lost
@@thecaynuck4694 he deserves every bit of blame and then some. He had no idea of his location, he didn't know the boundaries of the TCA, he climbed 700' into it, and I will bet that he wasn't monitoring ATC. He filed a flight plan and then promptly deviated from it once enroute. In airspace as crowned as that around LA, you can't just fly in the direction of your destination. You have to navigate, which means flying the headings and altitude that you planned out before the flight, and being aware of your location relative to controlled airspace. A TCA is a big yellow blot on a VFR sectional chart that's hard to miss.
I can only imagine the ATC guy thinking: "Man, if only I told the AeroMexico to go a bit faster or slower, this wouldn't have happened". But it can't be at fault.
I was there that day! I was 6 years old eating at a Bob’s Big Boy and all the lights flickered on off for a few seconds. On the way out of restaurant 2 guys were looking up in the air with their jaws wide open saying
“they hit they hit” All you could see were 2 black smoke lines going to the ground, 1 small, 1 little. My family and I drove toward that way to go home and it was HELL! Smoke and the jet fuel smell!
There was a big wall into housing development and over that wall was the aftermath. I couldn’t see anything but we all new what was over that wall and just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.
What was real CRAZY! My mom all day kept saying that she didn’t feel right that day and something bad might happen, NO JOKE! She never said stuff like that before or since!
Did the plane hit power lines or something?
lets wander around "lost above LA" and not notice the large LAX airport that has high traffic volume, and be at an altitude much higher than we are supposed to be. what could possible go wrong. smh.
Right? If he was not going to contact ATC than he should've been paying attention. It's not that hard to avoid flying next to a big ass airport.
Apperently he had a heart atack
@W C Its called freedom of speech. i can have my opinion, just like you. im guessing you are a communist ?
@Maintenance Renegade AI DA PRA DEFINIR O QUE CAPITA SE E O WAIFAI OU O QUE OS RAKES USA . DAI DA PARA VER DE ONDE VEM ESTA ONDAS .
Back then it was quite easy to mistakenly wander into terminal (now called class b) airspace. I learned to fly back in the late 90’s when GPS was just starting to come out. None of our flight school aircraft had it till the mid 2000’s. My first solo flights away from the airport were made with just a folded paper map and a course calculated from winds aloft forecasts. Now private pilots can literally have a moving aeronautical map on there phones so airspace incursions are far less frequent. You’d have to be extremely negligent to accidentally fly into terminal (class b) airspace unknowingly these days.
This is especially stomach turning for me because I saw the fireball and plume of smoke on the corner of Crescent and Valley View and had no idea what it was. I was heading to the OP Pro in Huntington Beach with my older friend. I was 15 yrs old. A riot started that same day after Mark Occillupo won the OP Pro. I will never forget that day. I also had some school mates who lived in the crash zone. They never returned to school. I never knew what happened to them other then reports that they were severely traumitized. Rumors about body parts in their yards, trees and on roofs stuff like that. Sad day for many families.
Smile SurferStyle the body parts is true, seen plenty of aftermath pictures many through corrupt officials who leak them in the dark web. On point of impact the explosion and sheer forces breaks up human bodies into pieces. One of the most common is all the meat coming clean off the bones while the bones burn and disintegrate. The meat and all the organs go flying off splattering in the vicinity away from the crash. Which is what your friends probably saw. In other words an intact human just without bones. So what your classmates saw is something that would really leave them messed up unless they’ve been trained to go to war... even then... or are law enforcement or rescue/medical personnel who are desensitized to this exact situation. Rest assured it was an instant death. Their nerves didn’t even have a chance to react to pain.
I watched this crash from my house on Stowers Street in Cerritos , about 500 yards away on that fateful day. It killed some kids that I went to high school with. Such a tragedy. Me and my brother ran towards the crash and were turned back by the heat and smoke. I felt so helpless. I became a Fire/Paramedic years later. May they Rest In Peace.
I remember this accident well. I was living in socal at the time and my gf lived in Cerritos where the accident occurred. No cell phones in those days. I'll never forget seeing the smoke and thought it was just an industrial fire. I had no idea it was a plane crash until I got to my gfs house and turned on the TV
Great job FC. Hearing the transmissions of ATC and the pilot really add to the emotional impact of this video. The loss of lives here mandated a common sense requirement. Thank you for showing this event.
Awesome work! Unreal that TCAS wasn’t mandatory on all aircraft at the time. AM now will be operating the 787 on MEX-LAX flights
my channel should be 1000 subscribe can you help me
Completely agree. Had I flown anywhere near the area in my little plane, that would have been on the plane, if I had to get out there to put it in. This whole area is so congested...
@@havaclkveuzaybilimleri4072-- go take a shower stinko.
Many cockpit advances have come from safety devices developed after accidents.
@C7042
Exactly none of those are required for TCAS.
Mode S is only for TCAS II to give mutually divergent resolution advisories.
GPS is not used for TCAS at all. You’re confusing it with EGPWS.
ADS-B also isn’t required for it, since it is very new.
Taht poor ATC guy, I cant believe he resigned due to the crash.
Thats so, so sad.
If you were in the tower as ATC and this happened, it wouldn't cause you to resign? It sure would to me. PTSD friend.
Remember that ATC in, I think it was Europe, (I know, that “really narrows it down!”) Sorry, I don’t recall the details of that crash..but the father of a crash victim tracked down the ATC - and stabbed him to death.
@@mastro4065 I think it's this one:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Überlingen_mid-air_collision
I'm not sure I could return to work after that either. It must be a tremendous burden of guilt.
Chnet Gamer ....Excellent...Yea that’s it! I watch so many plane crash investigations videos, I lose track of the facts....Thanks for that link!....Oh wow, just read it...the guy who stabbed the ATC lost two children and his wife in that accident....
As has been the situation since the beginning of the air travel era, each rule and regulation is purchased with blood and flaming wreckage.
Al Grayson Daaaaamn....that's deep.
So so true☹️, "sacrifices"!? Not questioning God, but why human sacrifices to better issues! R.I.P. souls & hopefully the other life that came afterwards, are 7 x's greater than the last!😇
The FAR/AIM is written in blood.
Remember this well, I was flying C172 out of Torrance at the time. I have flown that area many times, the charts are very clear about the TCA.
This crash and all the deaths was caused, 100% by the Piper pilot.
Obviously.
Like most accidents there were multiple causes his navigational error was the main cause but not the only one
so many rich amateur idiots who barely knows to fly in vfr in their private plane, and almost zero to fly in ifr.. including the Piper pilot
No. It wasn't the Piper's fault. More of ATC's. ATC didn't radio Aeromexico about the piper and neither Aeromexico's captain noticed the Piper (it was on his side of the view.), idk why everyone is blaming the Piper and not ATC and Aeromexico for not noticing it. the Piper probably did notice it and tried to move, but it was too close and it crashed because the aeromexico pilot was too stupid to see it and atc didnt radio about it.
Holland 737 did u even watch the video?
I lived very near there at the time. The Piper came down in a flat spin in the field of a local school, the top of the canopy sheared off by the impact and one of the wings was covered in blood from the passengers who wear decapitated. The plane came down on a house where a birthday party was happening, everyone there was killed, my sister was two streets north of the accident, she heard the jet, looked out her front window and watched the jet hit the ground, one of my then co-workers had one of the landing wheels fall into his backyard and one I work with today had a body land on their roof. I went over to my sisters immediately afterwords, my then brother in law had gone over immediately after the crash to see if he could help, came back and said you do not want to go over there, as there were body parts, wreckage and fire everywhere, so I stayed away. I had to leave when the FAA ordered to entire area off limits, residents couldn't leave or enter once it was shut off. I had to take groceries to the cordon line to give my sister as if they left they couldn't come back in, this was for about two days IIRC. The sickest part of all this was the gawkers who showed up in droves almost immediately after the crash. According to my B-I-L, before the police or fire departments were able to establish a barrier around the crash site, numbers of gawkers came in, with their kids no less! to gawk and at the destruction in the crash zone. I honestly hope to this day that every one of them had to spend thousands of dollars on therapy for their kids after exposing them to that kind of horror.
jesus christ dude
Speaking of mid-air collisions, I'm dreading the day some fool with a drone flies it into a jet taking off/landing and having it be sucked into an engine. Been too many reports lately of drones and planes getting too close to each other.
Maybe done with intentional purpose?
Good point. I hope it never happens. I hope everyone knows not to fly drones near an airport. Also I don't think drones fly high enough to pose a problem when planes are at cruising height.
Or what about the idiot with the jetpack which was in the news recently?
It has already happened 3 times. Twice in 2017 with a black hawk helicopter and a Beech King Air A100 and once in 2018 with a hot air balloon. None of these resulting in a crash but still mid air collisions.
Newer drones have geo-fencing which prevents them from taking off in or around high-density airspace. Of course, there will still be incursions but this is a good first step.
My dear husband used to fly these light aircraft. He loved flying. Piper's he used to mention them a lot. May he rest in peace. No he didn't die in a plane crash. Natural causes.🙊
My sincerest condolences miss.
My condolences
Mexicana Flight 940 , also MEX - LAX , on 3/31/86 , crashed in mountains north of Mexico City. 167 souls perished, the deadliest involving the Boeing 727-200. In Flight fire due to compressed air in the center landing gear tire , instead of nitrogen.The exploding tire , leading to in flight fire , led to loss of hydraulic and electrical systems. AF 4590 , caused by a burst tire on take-off. RIP to all the victims of these terrible disasters. Thanks again to the flight channel. Live your lives to the fullest folks , we never know when our time is up.
Yeap, The managers made the mechanics add lots of air to the tires instead of hydrogen as needed. THE MANAGERS were the killers. The mechanics have to do what the managers say.
That´s so sad :( i can only imagine what they where thinking when going towards the ground :( R.I.P i hope people "Born again" in better life . we dont know what was before this life that we are living now. its just mind blowing when thinking it and "trying to remember" what was before this.
Why do you worry so much about your previous life...? It's gone, finished, over...nothing can ever be changed about it. It's just a page in your book of lives as a human being. Better concentrate on this one, trying to make the best out of it, as it is so brief and we don't know when God will call us back home again...it might be tomorrow.
Jennifer Kelly ~ you are right in someways. But I don’t think that person was dwelling on the past for long periods of time, more like a brief thought as to what was before. At some point everybody thinks something along those lines briefly. It’s human nature to philosophize and natural. To dwell on it obsessively, is something else.
Deep, but irrational comments.
I remembered that tragic day. I was at work in city of Paramount about a few miles away. I remembered people were screening about a plane crash in Cerritos and it was so surreal. RIP for all those victims.
This occurred 2 miles north of where I lived. I was coming home from Las Vegas that day. I still think about it often when I pass the area. Many people I knew saw the planes going down sadly.
Thank you for another excellent video! This crash and PSA Flight 182 have always been crashes that have caught my attention for a variety of reasons (a couple being that they're so close to each other in location and date all things considered) and I'm glad to see you've covered one of the crashes.
PSA 182 is the one that haunts me.
@Gus W TheFlightChannel has that crash uploaded as well.
It’s one of the newer ones.
We were close friends with a family that lived just a block away from the impact site of the DC-9. We visited their house often. There was an elementary school down the street from where the Piper impacted.
Your videos are honestly incredibly edited, especially with the music. Good job
I remember this crash I was living in Norwalk at the time.
Rest in peace all involved.
I remember this well, I was at Sacramento airport waiting for my flight home to Los Angeles when I heard some people talking about a crash that had just happened over Los Angeles , very sad situation
Another great job TFC.
It's a fitting memorial to those lives lost that tragic day !
What an amazing channel! Clearly a lot of hard work and info gathering was put into these awesome videos! Keep them coming and many thanks from us all!
Pure Awesomeness! Quality Content!! I love when I get a notification of a new video from TheFlightChannel!
Your Channel to me, is the #1 Channel in reference to this topic! Unparalleled! Thank you for your efforts! MICHAEL 🙏! Former United States Army Military Police Officer! God Bless America!!
Thanks again for another excellent video. Feel sorry for all involved, and especially those who died. For the ATC guy it must have been an horrible, and traumatic experience, it appears he was exonerated , as he was allowed to resume his career, but I can imagine how he felt unable to continue.
"oh this can't be"......that really gets me when I read that...so sad.
R.I.P to all on board.
Thank you TheFlightChannel for a amazing video! 💙
Very sad what loopholes in protocols can cause. RIP.
not only that, but Reagan firing all the experienced ATC and replacing them with Jr.'s
I was driving west on the 91 fwy when this happened. I saw the fireball and smoke 2 blocks
north of the fwy .
Im really glad your doing this. Thank you! Your very professional and VERY talented!!! Im honored to be able to share the tragedies that happened on these flights. God Bless you
I work in aviation as a mechanic and I watch these videos as a reminder how important my job is to do it right. I know this reenactment was pilot error but sometimes it's mechanical
My heart aches for these people and what they endured knowing that they were going to die this way. Prayers for their families and friends. I'm terrified of flying. 😢
Me too, especially when watching these vids but the reassurance the videos give of how each crash makes the airlines and FAA and airports etc beef up security and safety measures to make sure these incidents don't happen again, makes me feel a little safer.
I flew once that was enough for me
I flew twice that wasn’t enough for me
Flying is the most safest transportation actually!
@@adiprasetyo7_69 Tell that to those who died horrifically.
Thank you for uploading another video! (Especially on a Monday) Love your vids! Keep up the good work!😉
THANK YOU FOREVER YONG .
I remember this! I was in North Hollywood with my boyfriend and it just missed his grandmother's house in Cerritos by two streets. First time I ever saw him cry
I was living about 5 miles from where the aero mexico jet crashed and had friends who lived in the crash zone. the reality was so much more horrible.
Wow amazing I was 13 when this crash happened I remember that day, I remember seeing that crash site with the destruction and the lives that was lost. Thank you very much for this information showing how this tragic accident happened because I was afraid of flying due to seeing this accident as a young kid. Thank you sooo much. I will never forget the Cerritos Air Disaster. RIP to all that lost there lives that Sunday afternoon.
the flight channel's videos with the computer simulation and the actual cockpit talk are very effective, and it is scary indeed to watch some of this stuff this stuff..Im getting a real feel
This would be a great video for every student pilot to watch. Explains the importance of looking for traffic, knowing where you are in air space, and why the Mode C ring around large airports is there along with why transponder use is important.
I remember this, I had to go to that part of town the day after and from a hill I could see the neighborhood in Cerritos all destroyed,parts of the aircraft scattered ,still smolldering, the smell of burnt wood and hey fuel, very sad
I remember this crash in 1986. I had hoped after the PSA Crash in San Diego in1978. That we would see no more of these type crashes. Sadly we did and also in So Calif. Thankfully valuable lessons were learned, to prevent future collisions.
Bless the ATC guy. Wanna give him a hug x
Jaime Germanotta mmm find a boyfriend dude
Actually, the whole crash was caused by ATC and flight 496 (i think that's the number) since ATC didn't radio to 496 and aeromexico pilot was too stupid to see it.
@@swizzyman stop chatting gibberish mate. The Aeromexico flight crew had no fault for the crash whatsoever. The investigation itself proved they had little to no time to react even if they spotted the Piper. And it's funny how you focus so much on finding blame on who literally has none whatsoever and completely forgetting the one plane that was literally somewhere it was not supposed to be with a clueless pilot unable to even contact the ATC.
@@tizcoloko Caring about people is more than just sexual. 🖕
My wife and I were living in Cerritos and at the time of the incident. We had just finished Sunday breakfast at a cracker barrel in La Palma. And, walked out and saw the smoke from the mid-air. The wreckage of the piper landed in the elementary school yard, where are son's attended.
Saddest Last Words "Oh no this can't be"
PSA flight #182 Co-pilot: "mom i love you"
This is so crazy. A very similar accident to this one also happened in San Diego in 1978 in which a PSA flight collided with a Cessna. So, so sad that either of those crashes happened.
I remember that day , I was two miles away out side my friends house, when I heard something , then minute later?, I saw black smoke up in the sky .my friend was at the local S.F.S. swapmeet that morning ,he saw the small plane coming down in a spin..
Amazing that there is an actual photograph of DC-9 dropping out of the sky. I lived some 45 minutes away from Cerritos and I remember this like it was yesterday. RIP.
I remember this accident, It was right before Labor Day, seeing the Piper approaching the DC 9 you want it to be just a few feet higher!!
@jeff
Exactly. One thing that stuck with me was when the ATC guy mentions that a unidentified plane is in the area and the flight level was NOT known. I would have been VERY leery at that point. Anyone else? I kept getting the creeps right after that radio communication by the controller.
Thanks again for another wonderful video, your research is incredible. That’s what makes these videos so high class.
It's a great shame that it takes a tragedy such as this to bring in mandatory instrumentation which would have almost certainly saved everyone's life that fateful day. Another unbelievably good video by TFC, love it!
Things are always put right after a tragedy, as with the Paris DC10 crash.
TCAS was a very expensive investment, costing around 65,000 dollars per plane
@@GiordanDiodato And your point is? try telling the the loved one's of the people that died their life was not worth 65,000 dollars. If there is one blessing it's the fact it was a passenger liner and a small piper. It could have been two fully loaded passenger planes
@@WayneM1961 - TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) was still in development and not operationally certified at the time of this crash in August 1986.
@@HPG747 TCAS would have done nothing. If you watch and listen to the video the military aircraft had its transponder switched off and had degraded radar. It should never have been allowed off the ground.
“In memory” at the end was perfect.
"Oh... this can't be" is though to read
This was about two miles from where I live at the time off of Bloomfield. I remember seeing the Piper sitting in the schools grass playground, there was blood streams all over what was left. They all were decapitated. What's really crazy is I worked directly across the street from Zamperini Field, aka Torrance Air Port on PCH where the Piper took off from.
I lived in Fort Walton Beach, Florida when this happened and was taking a nap. I had a very vivid dream. I was in a crash position on a plane, sat up, looked to my left and kept (mental telepathy) telling a small group of people but mainly a child I felt was a boy with dark hair about 9, 10 or 11 years old "don't be afraid" over and over. Next I was on the ground sitting and my mind thought I was seeing steel train tracks. Then I realized it was a plane and I saw parts around me. I awoke sitting straight up, called my husband and told him my dream. The next day there was a photo and story of the plane crash. I was IN that plane with the child and group of people with or near him. I will never forget that dream. That child was not afraid and I was not afraid as we looked into each others eyes.
Another high class production of this channel.
I must admit that this channel became my favorite youtube channel.
Poor ATC guy. Felt sorry for him as much as I felt sorry for those who tragically lost their lives. RIP :(
Another great video.Strange that this accident happened on a clear day .TCAS has definitely increased air safety
My parents lived on Reva at the other end of the block and my Uncle Perry lived across the street. They happened to be visiting us in Tucson when it happened. Sad day for the neighborhood.
It’s odd that a decade earlier a Cessna 172 was struck by a PSA 727. It was also odd that they were both in California.
California: The state of cursed mid-air accidents and runway accidents.
RIP to all involved. I was born in Seattle but lived in Spokane (where the pilot of the PA-28 was from) for a bit
As this story sinks in, you feel worse and worse and worse. Rest in peace everyone. May God have mercy on your souls.
You do an amazing job creating these videos. I don't know why I keep watching them cause they make me cry.
RIP to those who died in this mid-air collision, and the ATC guy resigned traumatized after the crash.
TheFlightChannel, it's been so long since I was asking for Lauda Air 004 or Birgenair 301, I like your videos and nice job as always! ;)
I was sailing just off the Huntington Beach Pier when this happened. At the same exact time there was a riot going on at the Pier due to the Surf Contest....There was alot of Negative Energy focused on the area that day............
Elaine Ricketts I remember that. I spent a lot of time in HB. It was my birthday and I was working 😞 near South Coast Plaza, actually in the same shopping center where that small plane went down a couple of years ago. HB was more of an event for me because of its proximity. Did you see anything from Cerritos from where you were?
I can't get my head around how the piper pilot didn't see the DC-9 coming, I feel like had he been paying attention, he could've pulled up and save a lot of lifes
There's evidence the pilot of the small plane was suffering a medical emergency. I was reading that the autopsy reveals a possible stroke.
The Piper was above him
@kilahchrisThat is ironically is when most midair collisions occur according to the faa
The DC9 was approaching at a 90 degree angle and at a high rate of speed. Its not that easy to spot the DC9 quickly, its much more difficult than it seems to spot any aircraft when flying than it is on paper or to a non pilot
David M In 1986? Trust me. She wasn’t staring at a cell phone.
I know of one midair over Corona, Cal., around 2006/2007. Happened near Corona airport. The Wreckage almost came down on the building I worked in. In fact, one of the engines from the midair went through the roof of a car dealership parts dept., and killed the man working behind the counter.
As noted on Air Crash Investigations the stabilizer of the DC-9 cut off the top of the Piper’s cabin along with the three passengers - the wreck of the Piper had one of its wings “painted” red.
I've seen the pictures, pretty grim.
@Maintenance Renegade you've seen it too then. At least they felt nothing. We hope.
The beauty of the internet.... you can respond to any event, tragic or wonderful, and you can make yourself a part of the story and people will believe you and give you the attention you want, totally anonymous attention you crave.
Strange how the TV show Energency ran a story about a mid air collision a few years before. Not that the two are connected, but they were very aware of the possibility over California’s busy skies!
Wow that IS interesting!
I wonder if there had been other very close calls that the writers and producers might have heard about from contacts. That show had many consultants from police, fire, and other agencies that would help the producers make the show as realistic as possible.
Another well done video TFC. I didn’t know TCAS wasn’t required at one time, I couldn’t understand how this accident happened until you explained that part. Thanks, and nice work.