In George’s Point of View
It is a strange, sad phenomenon how tragedies live on.
On August 31, 1986, a Piper and a Douglas DC-9-32 collided over Cerritos California. The Piper, carrying the pilot and two passengers was going from Torrence to Big Bear. They departed Torrence at 11:46. The DC-9 from Mexico City was approaching Los Angeles with 58 passengers and 6 crew aboard. At 11:52 am, the DC-9’s left horizontal stabilizer sheared through the Piper’s cockpit like a can-opener.
The Piper crashed in the Cerritos Elementary School playground; the DC-9 in a Cerritos neighborhood destroying five houses, damaging seven more and killing an additional 15 on the ground.
Descriptions of the collision still fill me with horror.
The accident predates some of the precautionary measures we have now. Now, the Piper would have a Mode C transponder, which would indicate that it was too high, breeching LAX Terminal Control area; LAX was not at that time equipped with automatic warning systems.
It has been twenty-five years since that accident happened. A memorial ceremony now is being held commemorating the tragedy in the Cerritos Sculpture Garden, and another in Loreto, Mexico. The tragedy is being remembered by at least 30 US families, 20 Mexican families, in at least one home in Colombia, and one in El Salvador. It is being remembered in the neighborhood the wreckage demolished, where families neither need nor want a plaque to remind them of their loss.
There is a reminder of this crash in every light plane, and every jet. In fact, everyone who flies now, everyone who has flown and not died in a crash owes a debt to the victims of this senseless tragedy, because this was the event that spurred the FAA to require “Mode C” transponders that could report three-dimensional positioning on light aircraft. This was the event that spurred the FAA to require TCAS on airliners.
I still live to breathe the smoggy air of Los Angeles. And as long as I still have the breath of life, I will remember the day when these 82 souls breathed their last.
Aviation tragedies shatters lives like broken glass, and there is no lawsuit, no settlement, no “all the kings horses, nor all the kings men” who can ever put families back together again.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
The small medical plane that crash landed at Raleigh-Durham International airport yesterday “bounced,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Airline’s Airbus A320 will also fly footballers on tournament trips, including Champions League games
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
All 75 people on board died when Aeroflot Flight 593 crashed at 160mph
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Video captured by a passenger shows the liquid first trickling and then streaming down the aisle, soaking the carpeting.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Middle Tennessee sees no shortage of car break-ins, but plane break-ins are more rare. However, the Metro Nashville Airport Authority told News 2 a suspect was taken into custody in Missouri for st…
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Federal officials say the two people aboard the cargo plane reported the fire moments after takeoff and requested to return to the Fairbanks airport.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
A federal aviation official says one of the two pilots of an airplane that was laden with fuel reported a fire on board shortly before the aircraft crashed and burned
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Nearly four years after a civilian skydiving aircraft collided with a Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey sitting on a San Diego runway, the U.S. government has settled the civil case after suing the businesses involved for damages
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
The single-engine plane crashed just after 10am on Wednesday morning on a secondary runway near Terminal 1 at the North Carolina airport.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
An All Nippon Airways aircraft carrying a total of 211 people landed safely at an airport in Hokkaido in northern Japan, despite smoke emitting from one of its wings.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Two people were feared dead after a rare cargo plane crashed in the far north of the United States on Tuesday, troopers in Alaska said.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Two people are feared dead after a plane crashed in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Tuesday.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
It is not known yet how many people were on board.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
The plus-size passenger refused to give up an extra seat on a plane to a toddler.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Report says Russia may be behind GPS interference over Baltic Sea since last August
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
Emergency services were called to Sunshine Coast Airport after reports there was smoke coming from the cockpit of a Bonza plane on Tuesday afternoon.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
VH-EBN (pictured) is the first of Qantas’ A330-200LR aircraft to be upgraded with Viasat-capable wi-fi antennae, and is expected to finish its three-week retrofitting this week. The remainder of Qantas’ international widebody fleet will be progressively refitted over the next couple of years.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.
To include the featured image in your Twitter Card, please tap or click their icon a second time.