Original subtitles

East of Los Angeles, a calm holiday weekend

is shattered by a devastating explosion.

Airplane crash just back in our backyard.

A neighborhood is destroyed.

Frank!

Angelica!

I turned and saw my house totally on fire.

All the houses behind me were all on fire.

Where are they?

Where are they?

Fiery wreckage is strewn for blocks.

Investigators must discover why this airline crashed

and find a way to stop it from ever happening again.

Ladies and gentlemen,

we are starting our approach.

We lost both engines.

Keep the mask over your nose.

Emergency descent.

Mayday! Mayday!

Brace for impact!

I think I lost one.

Investigations started in the tragic incident.

It's going to crash!

Los Angeles International Airport, LAX,

is one of the busiest in the world.

It's used by 40 million passengers each year.

More than 1,500 planes take off and land every day.

It's August 31, 1986, Labor Day weekend.

Today, a junior air traffic controller, Walter White,

will be handling some of that traffic.

How's it going?

That was a big one...

White isn't a full-fledged controller yet.

He has to put in more time before he

gets his final certification.

Hey, Karl. How's it going?

Hey. Slow, slow, slow.

It was a long weekend.

And it was a beautiful day in Los Angeles.

It's absolutely clear outside, which we call

Chamber of Commerce type day.

You want to take a break?

Have a cigarette?

I could sit in for you.

That was my normal assigned shift.

And Walter came in and asked me if I wanted a break,

want to go smoke a cigarette.

And I said, sure.

Traffic was light.

It wasn't very busy.

It was Sunday morning.

Well, certainly,

any controller is looking to get seasoning, if you will.

Three months, four months, that's

a pretty new controller.

Los Angeles Approach, good morning.

I mean, it wasn't my turn for a break.

Walter wanted to work the sector.

As I remember correctly, he wanted to work it

for some proficiency time.

He hadn't worked it in a while.

ACL 60, can you see the Runway 25 Left?

Roger, LA Approach.

Thank you.

Reduce speed to 200 then descend and maintain 6,000.

200 descend and maintain 6,000, thank you.

Have a nice day.

Several hundred miles to the south,

passengers are boarding an Aeromexico DC-9.

Dr. Donald Wong and his sons are returning from a highly

successful fishing trip.

Jason... Jason, I think we should

put it up in the kitchen.

They caught an enormous sailfish...

Your mom will love it.

...which they planned to display back home.

Labor Day weekend was the last weekend

before school was to start.

Donald decided that it would be fun to take the boys fishing

down in Mexico, to go deep sea fishing, which he'd only done

one other time in his life.

This would be like father-son bonding weekend.

And it was also the first time that they

had traveled without me.

Just east of LA, the suburban city of Cerritos

wakes up slowly.

In the 1970s, this bustling community

had been one of the fastest growing in Los Angeles County.

My husband had been

working out of town all week.

And he was coming home for the weekend.

And that Sunday morning, I decided let's just

stay home, not go to church.

I'm going to go out and get your favorite things

for a good breakfast.

Javier, go and take a shower.

And I left to go to the grocery store.

In the home was Alex...

he was 14... his twin sister, Angelica...

She was asleep.

He was asleep still...

and Javier... that was my 16-year-old...

and my husband.

As Estrada leaves on her errand,

Aeromexico Flight 438 is just 20 minutes from LA.

Captain Antonio Valdez-Prom is acting as copilot

as they approach the city.

First Officer Jose Valencia is piloting

this leg of their journey.

Ready when you are, Captain.

About 13 miles south of LAX,

it's the Torrance Airport.

Operating in the mammoth shadow of LAX,

Torrance serves private planes and amateur pilots.

It's one of several small airports

that operate near LA, a region that

has over 6,000 weekend fliers.

Fuel set.

Flap set.

At the end of a busy summer, William Kramer;

his daughter, Caroline; and wife

Kathleen are finally taking to the skies.

Piper 4891 all clear for takeoff.

Good morning, Piper 4891.

This is Torrance Tower.

You're cleared for takeoff from Runway 5 Left.

They're heading to Big Bear Lake...

You can take flight now.

Rolling tower.

...about 125 miles northeast.

A meticulous man, William Kramer

is an executive for an engineering company.

Six years ago, at the age of 47,

Kramer bought his first airplane, a stylish and swift

Piper Cherokee.

Wings West 5225, Los Angeles Approach,

depart Seal Beach heading 320.

Expect a visual approach Runway 25 Left.

Report airport in sight.

Thanks.

Walter White's job as arrivals controller

is to make sure incoming planes keep well clear of each other.

He's directing them to land on one of two runways.

LA Approach, Runway 25 Left, thank you.

Southeast of LAX, the crew of Aeromexico Flight 498

is still a few minutes from their first contact

with Walter White.

OK, just an hour to go.

We're in Big Bear Lake.

They're reporting visibility of 14 miles today.

Pretty good.

As the Torrance Airport recedes behind him,

Kramer begins climbing to 9,800 feet on his way

northeast to Big Bear Lake.

Several miles away, a half-full DC-9 from Mexico

is approaching Los Angeles International Airport.

Just 6,500 feet below them, Theresa Estrada

is driving home with the groceries

for a holiday breakfast.

Her husband and three children are waiting

just a few blocks away.

That's it.

Holiday's over.

PSA 1765.

One mile southbound. Altitude unknown.

It's not a busy morning.

And one by one, arrivals controller Walter White

guides his planes in safely.

At 11:47 AM, he gets his first call

from Aeromexico Flight 498.

Los Angeles Approach, good morning. This is Aeromexico 498.

Aeromexico 498, Los Angeles Approach,

25 Left, final approach course, do you have information?

Aeromexico Flight 498 is

now officially inside what's known

as the Terminal Control Area, or TCA.

Sometimes referred to as the birdcage,

the TCA is a complex piece of three-dimensional airspace

around the airport.

It's restricted airspace that's normally found

around heavily congested airports or hub airports where

the traffic density is extremely high,

and you need to control the access

into and out of that airspace.

Aeromexico 498, traffic 10 o'clock, 1 mile

northbound, altitude unknown.

Roger, 498.

Aeromexico 498, reduce speed to 190,

then descend and maintain 6,000.

As the Aeromexico plane descends,

William Kramer and his family continue climbing.

I hope it's like this when we get to Big Bear.

We should be able to see the ocean by now.

Hun, take a look at the map and look around the 45

and see if you can see any kind of landmarks that we can use.

Oh, what am I looking for?

This is Aeromexico 498...

Walter White is keeping his eye

on the Aeromexico jet when his attention is

abruptly drawn to another plane that's

just appearing on his radar.

It's not one he's expecting.

One approach, 66 Romeo

is on a flight from Fullerton.

Cruising altitude is 4,500.

We'd like following.

The pilot of a small Grumman Tiger

asks White to help guide him through the crowded terminal

control area.

Pilots are supposed to contact LAX Approach before they

enter the controlled airspace.

This pilot could be in the path of incoming traffic.

But before White can deal with a private plane,

he gets a call from the Aeromexico DC-9.

What speed do you want?

We're reducing to 290...

no, no, to 190.

Oh, OK, you can hold what you have, sir.

White decides to give the Aeromexico jet the runway

closest to their gate.

Change in plan, sir.

Stand by.

Roger, 498.

With the DC-9 on hold,

White turns to the intruder.

Grumman 66 Romeo, squawk 4524, remain clear of the TCA.

White tells the pilot of the Grumman

to use a unique radio channel.

But he seems confused.

45... what were the other two numbers?

4524.

Grumman 66 Romeo, are you at 4,500 now?

Negative, we're at 3,400 and climbing.

OK, you are right in the middle of the TCA, sir.

Grumman 66 Romeo, I suggest in future,

you look at your TCA chart.

You just had an aircraft pass right off your left above you

at 5,000.

And we run a lot of jets right through there at 3,500.

Well, what do you suggest I do now?

As the crew of Aeromexico

Flight 498 continues to close in on the airport...

Ignition, landing lights...

...their DC-9 is rocked by a violent shudder.

There are bugs.

What was that?

Aeromexico 498, Los Angeles Approach.

First Officer Valencia tries desperately

to control their dive.

Aeromexico 498, Los Angeles Approach.

This can't be!

I saw a huge explosion, just

the red, vibrant colors of fire,

just huge explosion,

like the way a bomb might hit the ground.

White is getting no response

from the Aeromexico jet.

Aeromexico 498, Los Angeles Approach.

And now he can't find it on his radar screen.

I'm sitting there

talking with the two departure controllers

and not really thinking.

I hear Walter say something like...

I think I lost one.

Aeromexico 498, Los Angeles Approach.

That immediately

got everybody's attention.

So we looked at the radars and could hear

him calling, Aeromexico 498.

Called them several times on the radio.

Where was Aeromexico?

At this point, we weren't absolutely

sure what had happened.

White calls to an incoming jet for help.

American 333 heavy,

I want you to take a look around 11 o'clock.

I just lost contact with a DC-9.

Let me know if you see anything down there, please.

11 o'clock, 5 miles, what altitude?

He was last assigned 6.

He's no longer on my radar scope, American 333 heavy.

OK, I see a very large smoke screen off on the left side

of the aircraft, about 11 o'clock.

I went down the street to go to my house

and I saw a woman's head, her body

had been cut in a diagonal.

And she was just laying there.

There was nothing but debris and fires sporadically

all over the place.

And I could see fire in the whole neighborhood.

Nearby, an engine from a local fire station

had been on a training exercise led by

Fire Captain Larry Hambleton.

All of a sudden, one of the firemen

tapped me on the shoulder and said,

there's a big column of smoke, you know, off to our left.

So I picked up the mic and made a guess at the address.

Responding to a large fire north of 91,

north of Carmenita.

They came back and said, well, we've got

a report of an airliner down.

So I upgraded the response to basically triple

what I initially asked for.

I'm calling for a third alarm and two air squads east

of 183 and Germany.

As we approached,

I realized that in addition

to the aircraft parts in the street,

there were people, body parts,

which changed the complexion of the whole thing.

Set up a perimeter.

That's as good as it gets.

Don't press it. Let's go!

Hello!

Hello!

Can anybody hear me?

At Los Angeles Approach,

Walter White, deeply shaken by the crash,

is relieved of duty.

I remember watching

Walter get up and walk out of the room by himself.

And, you know, something inside of me

was just saying this is not right.

This is not right.

Somebody's got to go with him.

Tony, he can't go out alone.

I could have been sitting there just as easy as him.

And I don't know if I'd have done anything

different than he did.

If you're out there, you'll see a large plume

of white and black smoke.

And that's the air crash site, about three miles

west of not far...

Helicopter news crews are quickly on the scene.

...the field that they're using for medevac...

medevacing...

There was a lot of fire in front of me.

And my house is just totally on fire.

Frank!

Angelica!

Javier!

Angelica!

And I saw my neighbor...

Where are they?

I said to her, Rose, where is my family?

What happened?

And she goes, oh, honey, your family's in here.

They're over here.

We're looking for you.

And within myself, all I could do

is thank God that they were safe and sound.

She took me into her home.

- And I saw Alex. -Alex?

-Ma! -Alex!

What happened?

Where's Angelica?

I don't know...

Where's Angelica?

I don't know.

Where's Javier? Where's Papa?

I don't know, Mama.

I'm sorry.

I don't know, Ma.

And he started crying right away and said, Mom, I'm sorry.

I'm the only one that came out alive.

And all I could do was hug him.

Pieces of fuselage have

torn through nearby homes, setting them on fire.

I'm at the scene of the incident at the block.

We have three homes...

Hello?

Is there anybody in here?

As I surveyed the houses and the crash site around me,

it was a very surreal experience

to stand right there and not see another living soul.

I have got wreckage all over the place.

There are no survivors, just fatalities.

Let's go to work, guys.

There are five homes on fire.

Copy.

Air Force 73, can you confirm...

I don't think I ever saw a whole human being.

I gave them the job of finding body parts

and wrapping them or covering them

with a yellow rescue blankets.

No matter where it was, ever so small or whatever,

you know, a hand or a torso or a leg

or whatever, that became life to us.

It was treated with respect.

Oh boy, a little corner of this neighborhood

has just been torn apart.

Yellow sheets mark the bodies.

I count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 bodies right now.

Oh, gosh.

This neighborhood has just been devastated, just flat...

16 houses have been damaged, many of them

completely destroyed.

At Los Angeles International Airport,

Mary Wong is waiting for her husband and two young sons.

I went to the airport

to pick them up around noon and waited

in that area outside of customs and waited and waited.

And probably... you know, you're thinking customs

might take a little while.

But about maybe 12:20 or 12:30,

I started seeing a man walk around with a pack on his back

with a green cross.

We were taken up to a lounge upstairs.

And on the elevator up, I looked at the man.

And I said, they're dead.

So I just know they're gone.

In Cerritos, emergency workers are shocked

by another grisly discovery.

In the playground of a local school,

they find the wreckage of a Piper Cherokee Archer.

Remarkably intact,

the plane's canopy is sliced off.

Its three occupants are found still belted into their seats.

William Kramer and his family are dead.

All the passengers and crew on Aeromexico Flight 498

are also dead.

In addition, 15 people on the ground have been killed.

It's a horrifying situation.

I've got...

Two planes have crashed into a

California neighborhood.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board

arrive that night.

They include experts in human performance, flight systems,

and air traffic control.

From the beginning, investigators

are focused on the fact that there

are two planes on the ground.

It suggests a disturbing conclusion that this

was a midair collision.

The idea that this had been a midair collision

was already conveyed to us before we

even launched out of Hangar 6 back when we got to work.

They saw two wreckages coming down.

And that's the way it got conveyed to us.

With that idea in mind, John White and his team

must painstakingly examine the wreckage.

It's more of now documenting where the major pieces were

and then looking at the pieces to see if you can determine

how the aircraft... what angle the aircraft

may have come together at.

Propeller marks in the tail of the DC-9

and paint from the Piper Cherokee

reveal how the planes crashed.

It looks like the Piper

collided at the tail section of the DC-9.

And the horizontal stabilizer came off.

And once that happened, you could no longer

control the pitch of the DC-9.

The descending DC-9 and the climbing

Cherokee met at a 90-degree angle.

Their combined speed was 280 miles an hour.

The impact tore off the airliner's tail section.

Discovering how the planes collided is the first step.

The more important question to be answered is, why?

To piece together the tragedy, investigators examined

the DC-9's flight data recorder.

It helps them pinpoint the exact location and altitude

of Aeromexico Flight 498.

The DC-9 was inside the terminal control area,

the controlled airspace of the Los Angeles Airport.

It was right where it was supposed to be.

But the Kramers' Cherokee was also inside the TCA.

With all of the jets taking off and landing at LAX,

private planes must first get permission to enter this area.

Piper 4891.

All clear for takeoff, Torrance.

William Kramer was a newcomer to Los Angeles.

Rolling tower.

But investigators learned

that he was well aware of the limits imposed by the TCA.

He knew that it was restricted airspace.

And in the cockpit of Kramer's Cherokee, the confirmation.

Investigators find a map of the Los Angeles

terminal control area.

Investigators make another puzzling discovery.

They learned that the Kramers' proposed flight plan

would have taken them from Torrance to Long Beach,

then up to Ontario, and finally to Big Bear Lake

at a cruising altitude of nearly 10,000 feet.

That plan would have kept them well out of the TCA.

The fact of the matter is

that the Cherokee flew into the TCA

and hit the DC-9 in restricted airspace without a clearance.

So how had Kramer flown into danger?

And why hadn't he let anyone know?

On the ground in Cerritos, one possible answer emerges.

Heart disease runs in Kramer's family.

And the initial autopsy results show a major blockage.

Are you all right, Bill?

Yeah, yeah, I'm fine.

Kramer may have suffered

a heart attack on the flight, leaving

the plane without a pilot.

Samples of William Kramer's heart tissue

are sent to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology

for testing.

If he suffered a heart attack, it might explain why he

didn't call in to LA Approach.

It's totally possible

that he could have had the heart attack,

fell back, pulled the airplane up.

And that's why he didn't try and avoid the DC-9.

But no matter why Kramer was flying

in restricted airspace,

air traffic controller Walter White

should have been able to see him.

Kramer's plane should have appeared on White's radar.

Before being questioned by investigators,

White reviews the radio calls from that morning.

He needs to be sure of what he said and what he saw.

Richard Wentworth was one of the investigators

who talked to White.

At any time did you see the Piper Cherokee on your scope?

No. No, sir.

The Piper's target was not displayed.

It is my belief that it was not on my radar scope.

He was positive that the aircraft

was not there for him to see.

NTSB investigators aren't

satisfied with White's memory.

While the radar data is being analyzed,

news arrives from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology

about William Kramer's heart.

Are you all right, Bill?

Results from a detailed study of his body

show that while he had advanced heart disease,

William Kramer was not fighting a heart attack

before the collision.

Investigators must find another explanation

for why the Kramers' flight

went into the Los Angeles terminal control area.

While he had submitted a flight plan,

small planes like Kramer's Cherokee

don't have sophisticated instruments.

Like most private pilots, Kramer was navigating

by landmarks like freeways.

That meant keeping an eye both on the landscape below

and the airspace around him.

And that's definitely the 405.

Where is it again?

Right there.

John Andrews is an aviation expert

who testified about the circumstances

of the Cerritos disaster.

The pilot of the Piper

was navigating by visual landmarks,

possibly attempting to follow parallel to a freeway.

And that he had become confused about which freeway

he should have been following.

New to California, perhaps bewildered

by the tangle of freeways below him,

Kramer may have flown into the terminal control area

without knowing it.

Investigators are now confident they

can explain why Kramer was inside the controlled airspace

of the TCA.

But when he finally gets a look at the air traffic control

radar record, Richard Wentworth is

convinced that Walter White should have

been able to see the Piper.

We were able to determine

that the aircraft that collided with Aeromexico

was there to be seen.

So why hadn't White reacted to the Kramers' plane

if it was on his radar?

When junior air controller Walter White

came to work at LA Airport on the day of the crash,

the arrival station was being controlled by Karl Grundmann.

Hey, Karl.

-How's it going? -Hey.

Slow. Slow. Slow.

Grundmann believes that long-standing radar

problems were the reason White didn't see the Kramers' plane.

Controllers have been complaining about the radars

for a long time.

-All yours, buddy. -All right, thanks a lot.

We had reported problems with the radar

not picking up targets several times.

When radar signals strike a target,

they bounce back to the receiver.

But if buildings or mountains interrupt the radar,

the return signal can disappear.

You may lose one target.

You may lose two targets.

It may not be presented for one sweep.

Did you see the Piper Cherokee on your scope?

No, sir.

But that doesn't mean that the target isn't there.

A blind spot is only an instantaneous thing.

It's not a continuous thing.

I think I lost one.

There were also holes that were just

because the radar was old.

It was just not as accurate as it might have been.

It was not state-of-the-art equipment,

that's for darn sure.

There's an effect called flicker.

When a computer becomes overloaded,

the scope will flicker.

Every now and then, targets will drop out or can drop out.

We reviewed that data.

We had no evidence that there were any malfunctions

of any systems in Los Angeles.

There is another possible explanation.

If the Cherokee had appeared on the radar,

White still could have missed it.

Investigators focus on the other plane

in the sky that day...

the Grumman Tiger.

Private planes are required to contact

air traffic control if they are entering

the terminal control area.

But the Tiger was already deep into the TCA

before it radioed Walter White.

One approach, 66 Romeo was

on a flight from Fullerton.

Cruising altitude is 4,500.

We'd like following.

Grumman 66 Romeo, are you at 4,500 now?

Negative, we're at 3,400 and climbing.

OK, you are right in the middle of the TCA, sir.

There was an aircraft that was east of the airport,

which he became involved in.

That was what they called a violator.

Grumman 66 Romeo, I suggest in future,

you look at your TCA chart.

You just had an aircraft...

The problem with the conversation

between the controller and the pilot of the Grumman.

is that it went on too long.

Why were you so mesmerized by the Grumman?

I thought he posed a risk.

This occurred

during a critical time at which the two aircraft

to the southwest of his display,

which was the Aeromexico and the Cherokee, were merging.

But even if the Cherokee signal did

appear on White's radar, and even if he had seen it,

investigators discover that White still would not have had

all the information he needed.

Radar signals only show controllers

that a plane is in range.

Transponders on planes can broadcast other information,

including height and speed.

But at the site of the Cherokee wreckage,

investigators discover the plane's

transponder is a basic model.

It only sends out information on the plane's direction.

It provides no information about the plane's altitude.

Grumman 66 Romeo, squawk 45...

Investigators believe that White's divided attention,

perhaps made worse by an older radar system,

explains why air traffic control

never warned the DC-9 of the danger

posed by Kramer's Cherokee.

Landmarks that we might be able to use as a visual.

But there's another mystery

that hasn't been solved.

Studying the radar records from the day,

NTSB investigators are startled by what they find.

Neither the crew of the DC-9 nor the pilot

of the smaller Cherokee took any evasive action

before the crash.

Both pilots appear completely unaware of each other.

Definitely the 405...

Why hadn't the pilots of either airplane reacted?

Visibility was over 12 miles.

How could two planes collide in the clear blue sky?

To try to get a better sense of what was happening

inside the Aeromexico cockpit, investigators

listened to the airplane's cockpit voice recorder.

Los Angeles Approach, this is Aeromexico 498...

The flight crew had put Walter White

on their overhead speakers.

The microphone for the cockpit voice recorder was

right beside the speakers.

Los Angeles Approach,

- depart Seal Beach... -Seat belts.

...heading 320.

Much of what the pilot said was

-drowned out by White's voice. - .

Reduce speed to 200 then

- descend and maintain 6,000. -BPR bugs, altimeter bugs.

The radar information paints a puzzling picture.

It indicates that for more than a minute,

the Kramers' Cherokee was there to be

seen by the Aeromexico crew.

And if the Kramers had looked out their right side window,

they would also have seen the Aeromexico jet.

But neither plane altered its course.

Neither plane took any action to avoid the deadly collision.

Investigators believe that if William Kramer was indeed lost

and using the highways as a guide,

he might never have seen the approaching DC-9.

The window he would have been looking out

was the pilot's window.

No, no, no, no, no.

But the DC-9 was coming

from the other direction.

For the crew of the DC-9, the very size of the much smaller

Cherokee could have prevented them from seeing the plane

before it was too late.

In some cases, when the small aircraft

is closing very rapidly, by the time the aircraft becomes

large enough for you to easily see it,

it's almost too late to avoid the collision.

The design of the cockpit windshield

may also have contributed to the disaster.

Hey, Maria. Anything...

It's possible that during part

of the approach, at least for one of the pilots,

the aircraft was actually behind the center post.

And unless the pilot moved his head back and forth

to clear that airspace, unless he had a reason to do that,

it's possible the aircraft was obscured during part

of the time in which he might have had a chance

of seeing the other aircraft.

Ignition.

The disaster over Cerritos

revealed several tragic weaknesses

in the air traffic control system.

One of the most glaring was that pilots

could not be relied on to see and avoid each other.

They would need new technology to keep a midair collision

from happening again.

The NTSB report makes it clear that there

are glaring problems across the air traffic system.

And these concerns must be addressed

before inevitably there is another midair disaster.

The FAA, which regulates the airline

industry in the United States, acted

swiftly to improve safety.

A new kind of transponder is required for smaller planes,

the kind that might have helped air traffic

controllers recognize that a private aircraft posed

a danger.

A new system called Mode C Intruder

was also developed to warn air traffic controllers.

Mode C intruder

is an automated program that is now incorporated in

all our major radar facilities, that if an aircraft should

inadvertently intrude, the controller will now be given

a visual and an oral alert, thus

giving him time to provide a timely warning to the pilot.

check.

Seat belts, engine...

Even for the most diligent pilot,

the old strategy of see and avoid had serious limitations.

Those limitations would be addressed with the most

important innovation of all.

The major technological innovation

that came out of the Cerritos midair

was the congressional mandate that all air carrier aircraft

operating within the United States

would be outfitted with TCAS, Traffic Collision

and Avoidance System.

John Andrews worked in the team

that developed TCAS.

The TCAS Collision Avoidance System,

which was under development, quite possibly

could have prevented this accident.

TCAS gives the pilot a traffic advisory

at 45 seconds before the potential collision.

Hey, Maria.

Everything OK back there?

And then at approximately 25 seconds

or so before the potential collision,

a resolution advisory is given to actually tell

the pilots to climb or descend to avoid the altitude

of the other aircraft.

See.

Today, commercial airlines around the world

use TCAS.

The pilot of the Grumman Tiger, the so-called third pilot,

whose actions may have played a part in the crash,

was eventually charged for flying

into controlled airspace in a careless and reckless manner.

For Walter White, the effect of the disaster over Cerritos

could not be overcome.

Walter came back to the TRACON.

And I think it was probably a month or so later.

And I can't give you exactly how long he stayed there.

But it wasn't very long.

And he just got up and said no, no, thank you.

And as far as I know, he didn't talk to airplanes again.

Within a year of the incident,

the old radars at LAX were replaced.

In Cerritos, a memorial garden now

marks the day of the disaster.

Mary Wong has since remarried.

But the pain of returning home that day will never go away.

There's nobody here.

The house is empty.

Derek was already living in an apartment in San Diego.

And here I was.

I was no longer a mother except to Derek.

And I was no longer a wife.

And so it shattered my whole world.

Days after the disaster, Mary Wong

met one of the few people who could

fully understand her loss.

I went to the memorial service.

And it was very important to me to try to meet somebody else

who had gone through this.

And I knew from reading stories that Theresa had lost

her husband and two children.

And so I saw someone there who I thought was Theresa.

She says, are you Theresa Estrada?

And I said, yes, I am.

She says, well, my name is Mary Wong.

And she says...

I said I lost my husband and children also.

I just wanted to grab her and hug her because she was

feeling what I was feeling.

So we had an immediate connection.

And we've maintained our friendship

over these 20 years.

Everyone who flies today

has been affected by the midair collision over Cerritos.

The disaster led to historic improvements

in aviation safety.