Planes crash on L.A. suburbs

Press, 2 September 1986, Page 1

Planes crash on L.A. suburbs

By

RONALD CLARKE

NZPA-Reuter Los Angeles An army of disaster workers sifted through gutted houses in a mourning Los Angeles neighbourhood yesterday for remains of victims of an air collision that police and airline officials said left up to 77 dead. Teams spread out over a blackened square mile of houses and tree-lined streets, strewn with shoes, clothing... and toys tered by an Aeromexico DC9 airliner as it crashed in a fiery thunderball after being in a collision with a private single-en-gined plane. The airliner carried 58 passengers, including some off-duty crew members, and a crew of six. Three persons were in the private plane. The police said all were killed.

Up to 10 people on the ground, spending a quiet Labour Day holiday weekend, died when debris crashed into their homes like shells and started fires fed by hot plane fuel, the police said.

. They said fifteen people were hurt, mostly by inhaling smoke.

Nine homes were gutted and seven damaged in the middle-class neighbourhoods of Cerritos and Buena Park, 50km east of the centre of Los Angeles. The airliner, flight 498, had taken off from Mexico City and picked up passengers at Guadalajara, Loreto, and Tijuana .before beginning the. final short-and fatal hop to Los Angeles Airport. “People ran out of their houses screaming, but some were not so lucky,” said a neighbour, Seth Grossman. He and his father dragged four injured neighbours out of their burning home, but could not reach others because of the heat. Two burned-out cars and a chimney stack were the only remnants of one home. A large piece of fuselage . had dug itself into the garden of another.

The private plane was upside down in the playing field of Cerritos elementary school. A few blocks away, children happily played on swings in a park. Rescue workers said

the miracle was that the death toll was not twice as high. Many people had gone to the beaches or to the parks to enjoy the sunshine and others were in church. The school was empty. .. ~ The giant Disneyland amusement patCZJWIy 12km from the crash scene, was packed with holidaymakers, . "The airliner flipped over on its back and dropped like a stone belly up, landing in a bali of fire,” said William Chong, an onlooker. . The Mexican news agency, Notimex,. named the pilot of the crashed plane as Arturo Valdez Prom, aged 39, with about 10,000 hours of flying experience.

The Aeromexico station manager in Los Angeles, Mr Armando Charles, said the airliner had descended to 6200 ft (1890 m and was in touch with the Los Angeles Airport control tower when the collision occurred. He spid the tower had not been in touch with the private plane. At Los Angeles Airport, 20 people had come to meet relatives expected aboard the plane. Many were escorted to a nearby office in tears.