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On 31 August 1986, Aeroméxico Flight 498 collides with a light aircraft over Cerritos, California, causing both to go out of control and crash, killing all 67 people on both aircraft and 15 people on the ground. The accident was caused by neither pilot making visual contact with the other aircraft and a lack of automated collision warning systems. The crash inspires the creation of the traffic collision avoidance system.
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00:01East of Los Angeles, a calm holiday weekend
00:05is shattered by a devastating explosion.
00:11A neighborhood is destroyed.
00:19I turned and saw my house totally on fire.
00:23All the houses behind me were all on fire.
00:25Where are they? Where are they?
00:30Fiery wreckage is strewn for blocks.
00:35Investigators must discover why this airliner crashed
00:38and find a way to stop it from ever happening again.
01:16Los Angeles International Airport, LAX, is one of the busiest in the world.
01:22It's used by 40 million passengers each year.
01:25More than 1,500 planes take off and land every day.
01:34It's August the 31st, 1986.
01:38Labor Day weekend.
01:45Today, a junior air traffic controller, Walter White, will be handling some of that traffic.
01:53White isn't yet a fully-fledged controller.
01:56He has to put in more time before he gets his final certification.
02:00Hey, Carl. How's it going?
02:02Hey. Slow, slow, slow.
02:06It was a long weekend, and it was a beautiful day in Los Angeles.
02:09It was absolutely clear outside, which we call Chamber of Commerce type day.
02:13You want to take a break? Have a cigarette?
02:15I can sit in for you.
02:16That was my normal assigned shift, and Walter came in and asked me if I wanted a break,
02:20wanted to go smoke a cigarette, and I said, sure.
02:22Traffic was light. It wasn't very busy.
02:24It was Sunday morning.
02:29Well, certainly, any controller is looking to get seasoning, if you will.
02:35Three months, four months, that's a pretty new controller.
02:38It's Angel's approach. Good morning.
02:40I mean, it wasn't my turn for a break.
02:42Walter wanted to work the sector.
02:43As I remember correctly, he wanted to work it for some proficiency time.
02:46He hadn't worked it in a while.
02:47Can you see the runway 25L?
02:50Roger, Ellie, approach.
02:53Reduce speed to 2-0-0, then descend and maintain 6,000.
02:562-0-0, descend and maintain 6,000.
03:00Have a nice day.
03:05Several hundred kilometers to the south,
03:07passengers are boarding an Aeromexico DC-9.
03:16Dr. Donald Wong and his sons are returning from a highly successful fishing trip.
03:23Jason.
03:23Jason.
03:24I think we should put it up in the kitchen.
03:26They caught an enormous sailfish.
03:28Your mom would love it.
03:30Which they plan to display at home.
03:33Labor Day weekend was the last weekend before school was to start.
03:38Donald decided that it would be fun to take the boys fishing down in Mexico, to go deep sea fishing,
03:44which he'd only done one other time in his life.
03:47This would be a, like, father-son bonding weekend.
03:53And it was also the first time that they had traveled without me.
04:03Just east of LA, the suburban city of Cerritos wakes up slowly.
04:08In the 1970s, this bustling community had been one of the fastest growing in Los Angeles County.
04:19My husband had been working out of town all week, and he was coming home for the weekend.
04:25And that Sunday morning, I decided, let's just stay home and not go to church.
04:31I'm going to go out and get your favorite things for a good breakfast.
04:36Javier, go and take a shower.
04:40And I left to go to the grocery store.
04:44In the home was Alex.
04:47He was 14.
04:48His twin sister, Angelica.
04:50She was asleep.
04:52He was asleep still.
04:54And Javier, that was my 16-year-old.
04:57And my husband.
05:04As Estrada leaves on her errand, Aeromexico Flight 498 is just 20 minutes from LA.
05:14Captain Antonio Valdez-Prom is acting as co-pilot as they approach the city.
05:21First officer Jose Valencia is piloting this leg of their journey.
05:26Ready when you are, Captain.
05:35About 22 kilometers south of LAX sits the Torrance Airport.
05:41Operating in the mammoth shadow of LAX, Torrance serves private planes and amateur pilots.
05:48It's one of several small airports that operate near LA.
05:52A region that has over 6,000 weekend flyers.
06:01At the end of a busy summer, William Kramer, his daughter Caroline, and wife Kathleen are finally taking to the
06:09skies.
06:10Piper 4891.
06:11Clear for takeoff.
06:14Good morning, Piper 4891.
06:16This is Torrance Tower.
06:17You're clear for takeoff from runway 5.
06:19They're heading to Big Bear Lake.
06:22Rolling tower.
06:23About 200 kilometers northeast.
06:26A meticulous man, William Kramer is an executive for an engineering company.
06:33Six years ago, at the age of 47, Kramer bought his first airplane, a stylish and swift Piper Cherokee.
06:50Wings, West 5225, Los Angeles approach, departs Sealed Beach, heading 320.
06:56Expect a visual approach, runway 25L.
06:59Report airport in sight.
07:00Thanks.
07:02Walter White's job as a rivals controller is to make sure incoming planes keep well clear of each other.
07:09He's directing them to land on one of two runways.
07:12Aerial approach, runway 25L.
07:20Southeast of LAX, the crew of Aeromexico Flight 498 is still a few minutes from their first contact with Walter
07:27White.
07:29But in the skies above Los Angeles, a deadly series of events is about to unfold.
07:37Dozens of people who have never met will be bound together forever in a tragedy that will affect everyone who
07:44flies.
07:45Airspeed.
07:55August the 31st, 1986. Labor Day weekend.
08:01All clear for takeoff, Tarts.
08:03Just south of Los Angeles, William Kramer and his family are finally on their way for a long-awaited holiday.
08:12Okay, just an hour to go, we're in Big Bear Lake.
08:20The reporting, visibility of 14 miles today.
08:23Pretty good.
08:28As the Torrance Airport recedes behind him, Kramer begins climbing to 3,000 meters on his way northeast to Big
08:35Bear Lake.
08:41Several kilometers away, a half-full DC-9 from Mexico is approaching Los Angeles International Airport.
08:54Less than 2,000 meters below them, Teresa Estrada is driving home with the groceries for a holiday breakfast.
09:02Her husband and three children are waiting just a few blocks away.
09:12That's it.
09:15Holiday's over.
09:22PSA 1765, 12 o'clock, one mile southbound.
09:25It's not a busy morning, and one by one, arrivals controller Walter White guides his planes in safely.
09:32Report airport in sight.
09:33At 11.47 a.m., he gets his first call from Aeromexico Flight 498.
09:40Los Angeles Approach, good morning.
09:42This is Aeromexico 498.
09:46Aeromexico 498, Los Angeles Approach.
09:482-5 left, final approach course.
09:51Aeromexico Flight 498 is now officially inside what's known as the Terminal Control Area, or TCA.
10:00Sometimes referred to as the Birdcage, the TCA is a complex piece of three-dimensional airspace around the airport.
10:09It's restricted airspace that's normally found around heavily congested airports or hub airports where the traffic density is extremely high
10:17and you need to control the access into and out of that airspace.
10:21Aeromexico 498, traffic 10 o'clock, one mile northbound, altitude unknown.
10:26Roger 498.
10:28Aeromexico 498, reduce speed to 190, then descend and maintain 6000.
10:34As the Aeromexico plane descends, William Kramer and his family continue climbing.
10:47I hope it's like this when we get to Big Bear.
10:52We should be able to see the ocean by now.
10:55Hon, take a look at the map and look around the 4-5 and see if you can see any
11:00kind of landmarks that we can use.
11:02Oh, what am I looking for?
11:08Walter White is keeping his eye on the Aeromexico jet when his attention is abruptly drawn to another plane that's
11:14just appeared on his radar.
11:17It's not one he's expecting.
11:20Uh, one approach, 6-6 Romeo is on a flight from Fullerton.
11:25Cruising altitude is 4,500, we'd like following.
11:29The pilot of a small Grumman Tiger asks White to help guide him through the crowded terminal control area.
11:36Pilots are supposed to contact LAX approach before they enter the controlled airspace.
11:42This pilot could be in the path of incoming traffic.
11:47But before White can deal with the private plane, he gets a call from the Aeromexico DC-9.
11:55Uh, what speed do you want? We're reducing to, uh, 290.
12:00No, no, to 190.
12:02Uh, okay, you can hold what you have, sir.
12:04White decides to give the Aeromexico jet the runway closest to their gate.
12:08Uh, change in plan, sir, stand by.
12:10Roger, 498.
12:12With the DC-9 on hold, White turns to the intruder.
12:15Grumman 66 Romeo, squawk 4524. Remain clear of the TCA.
12:21White tells the pilot of the Grumman to use a unique radio channel.
12:25But he seems confused.
12:27Four, five, what were the other two numbers?
12:29Four, five, two, four.
12:33Grumman 66 Romeo, are you at 4,500 now?
12:37Negative, we're at 3,400 and climbing.
12:40Okay, you are right in the middle of the TCA, sir.
12:43Grumman 66 Romeo, I suggest in future you look at your TCA chart.
12:47You just had an aircraft pass right off your left above you at 5,000.
12:51And we run a lot of jets right through there at 3,500.
12:56Well, what do you suggest I do now?
13:02As the crew of Aeromexico Flight 498 continue to close in on the airport,
13:08landing lights.
13:10Their DC-9 is rocked by a violent shudder.
13:13Altimeter bugs.
13:16What was that?
13:19Aeromexico 498, Los Angeles approach.
13:21First officer Valencia tries desperately to control their dive.
13:32Aeromexico 498, Los Angeles approach.
13:35This can't be.
13:57I saw a huge explosion, just the red, vibrant colors of fire, just huge.
14:06Like the way a bomb might hit the ground.
14:10White is getting no response from the Aeromexico jet.
14:15Aeromexico 498, Los Angeles approach.
14:18And now he can't find it on his radar screen.
14:25I'm sitting there talking with the two departure controllers
14:27and not really thinking.
14:30And I hear Walter say something like,
14:32I think I lost one.
14:34Aeromexico 498, Los Angeles approach.
14:37That immediately got everybody's attention.
14:39So he looked at the radars and could hear him calling Aeromexico 498.
14:44Called him several times on the radio.
14:46Where was Aeromexico?
14:48At this point we weren't absolutely sure what had happened.
14:51White calls to an incoming jet for help.
14:54American 333 Heavy.
14:56Why don't you take a look around at 11 o'clock.
14:58I just lost contact with a DC-9.
15:00Let me know if you see anything down there, please.
15:02Uh, 11 o'clock.
15:03Uh, five miles.
15:04What altitude?
15:06He was last assigned six.
15:07He's no longer on my radarscope, American 333 Heavy.
15:10Okay, uh, I see a, um, very large smoke screen off on the left side of the aircraft.
15:16About 11 o'clock.
15:29I went down the street to go to my house, and I saw a woman's head, and her body had
15:36been cut in a diagonal, and she was just laying there.
15:43There was nothing but debris and fires sporadically all over the place, and I could see fire in the whole
15:50neighborhood.
15:58Nearby, an engine from a local fire station had been on a training exercise led by fire captain Larry Hambleton.
16:08All of a sudden, one of the firemen tapped me on the shoulder and said, there's a big column of
16:12smoke, you know, off to our left.
16:15So I picked up the mic and made a guess at the, uh, address.
16:22Responding to a large fire north of 91 north of Carmanino.
16:25They came back and, uh, said, well, we've got a report of an airliner down.
16:30So I upgraded the response to, uh, basically triple what I initially asked for.
16:37I'm calling for a third alarm.
16:39I have two air squads east of 40.
16:41Reincarnated.
16:49As we approached, I realized that in addition to the, uh, aircraft parts in the street, there were people, body
16:58parts.
17:01which changed the complexion of the whole thing.
17:06Let's go.
17:10There it is.
17:12Set up a perimeter.
17:13Set up a perimeter.
17:14All right.
17:14All right.
17:15All right.
17:16All right.
17:17All right.
17:19All right.
17:26Let's go.
17:35Hello!
17:38Hello!
17:39Can anybody hear me?
17:44All right.
17:49At Los Angeles' approach, Walter White, deeply shaken by the crash, is relieved of duty.
17:58I remember watching Walter get up and walk out of the room by himself.
18:12And, you know, something inside of me was just, you know, saying, this is not right.
18:16This is not right.
18:17Somebody's got to go with him.
18:18Tony, he can't go out alone.
18:20I could have been sitting there just as easy as him.
18:23And I don't know if I'd have done anything different than he did.
18:26What?
18:26Oh, no.
18:34If you're out in this area, you'll see a large plume of white and black smoke, and that's
18:38the air crash site about three miles west of Fullerton.
18:42to the airport not far.
18:43Helicopter news crews are quickly on the scene.
18:45You're using for medevac, medevac-ing.
18:53There was a lot of fire in front of me
18:56and my house is just totally on fire.
19:01Frank, Angelica, I'm here, Angelica.
19:06And I saw my neighbor.
19:08Where are they?
19:09I said to her, Rose, where's my family?
19:12What happened?
19:13And she goes, oh, honey, your family's in here.
19:16They're over here.
19:17We're looking for you.
19:19And within myself, all I could do is thank God
19:22that they were safe and sound.
19:33She took me into her home and I saw Alex.
19:36Alex!
19:37Alex!
19:42What happened?
19:43Where's Angelica?
19:45Where's Angelica?
19:46Where's Angelica?
19:47I don't know.
19:47Where's Javier?
19:48Where's Papa?
19:49I don't know, Mom.
19:50I'm sorry.
19:52I don't know, Mom.
19:53And he started crying right away and said, Mom, I'm sorry.
19:56I'm the only one that came out alive.
19:59And all I could do was hug him.
20:11Pieces of fuselage have torn through nearby homes, setting them on fire.
20:17I'm going to see that incident, the block.
20:19We have three homes.
20:21The tail section of the jet has been catapulted more than a block from the crash site.
20:30Hello?
20:33Is there anybody in here?
20:36Hello?
20:44Is there anybody in here?
20:49It was a very surreal experience to stand right there for probably four or five minutes
20:56before anybody else showed up and not see another living soul.
21:02I have got wreckage all over the place.
21:05There are no survivors, just fatalities.
21:09I dealt with death on one or two or three people in a residential fire, but never a whole
21:16airliner full of people.
21:26Let's go to work, guys.
21:41I don't think I ever saw a whole human being.
21:48I gave him the job of finding body parts and wrapping them or covering them with yellow rescue
21:56blankets.
21:58No matter where it was, ever so small or whatever, you know, a hand or a torso or a leg
22:04or whatever,
22:06that became life to us and was treated with respect.
22:13My memory of the incident is in a muted shade of brown.
22:19It's not black and white.
22:20It's not vivid color.
22:22You know, the grass isn't green.
22:24You know, the houses don't have paint.
22:26It's all some muted brown shade.
22:29And I'm told that that's my brain's way of taking something violent and horrible and softening
22:36it a little bit so I can live with it and deal with it.
22:39Oh, boy.
22:40The whole corner of this neighborhood has just been torn apart.
22:43The yellow sheets mark the bodies.
22:45I count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven bodies right now.
22:51Oh, gosh.
22:53This neighborhood has just been devastated.
22:54Sixteen houses have been damaged, many of them completely destroyed.
23:06At Los Angeles International Airport, Mary Wong is waiting for her husband and two young sons.
23:15I went to the airport to pick them up around noon and waited in that area outside of customs
23:22and waited and waited and probably, you know, you're thinking customs might take a little while,
23:30but about maybe 12.20 or 12.30, I started seeing a man walk around with a pack on his
23:36back with a green cross.
23:39We were taken up to a lounge upstairs and on the elevator up, I looked at the man and I
23:46said,
23:46They're dead.
23:49I said, I just know they're gone.
23:55In Cerritos, emergency workers are shocked by another grisly discovery.
24:00In the playground of a local school, they find the wreckage of a Piper Cherokee archer.
24:06Remarkably intact, the plane's canopy is sliced off.
24:10Its three occupants are found still belted into their seats.
24:14William Kramer and his family are dead.
24:28All the passengers and crew on Aeromexico flight 498 are also dead.
24:44In addition, 15 people on the ground have been killed.
24:52It's a horrifying situation.
24:56Two planes have crashed into a California neighborhood.
25:00Something's gone terribly wrong in the skies above one of the busiest airports in the world.
25:06Now investigators have to find out exactly what happened.
25:12On the last day of August in 1986, a lazy Labor Day weekend is shattered by an enormous explosion.
25:31Two planes crash in L.A. County, destroying several houses.
25:40It's a grisly scene.
25:42It's a grisly scene.
25:42Bodies are scattered throughout a devastated neighborhood.
25:4982 people are dead.
25:5215 people on the ground have been killed.
25:56Another 67 have died in the tangled wreckage of the two planes involved.
26:08Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board arrive that night.
26:13They include experts in human performance, flight systems, and air traffic control.
26:27From the beginning, investigators are focused on the fact that there are two planes on the ground.
26:33It suggests a disturbing conclusion that this was a mid-air collision.
26:41The idea that this had been a mid-air collision was already conveyed to us before we even
26:46launched out of Hangar 6 back when we got to work.
26:50They saw two wreckages coming down, and that's the way it got conveyed to us.
26:58With that idea in mind, John White and his team must painstakingly examine the wreckage.
27:03It's more of now documenting where the major pieces were, and then looking at the pieces to see if you
27:10can determine how the aircraft,
27:13at what angle the aircraft may have come together at.
27:16Propeller marks on the tail of the DC-9 and paint from the Piper Cherokee reveal how the planes crashed.
27:25It looks like the Piper collided at the tail section of the DC-9, and the horizontal stabilizer came off.
27:34And once that happened, you could no longer control the pitch of the DC-9.
27:40The descending DC-9 and the climbing Cherokee met at a 90-degree angle.
27:46Their combined speed was 450 kilometers an hour.
27:51The impact tore off the airliner's tail section.
27:56Discovering how the planes collided is the first step.
27:59The more important question to be answered is why.
28:05To piece together the tragedy, investigators examined the DC-9's flight data recorder.
28:11It helps them pinpoint the exact location and altitude of Aeromexico flight 498.
28:19The DC-9 was inside the terminal control area, the controlled airspace of the Los Angeles airport.
28:26It was right where it was supposed to be.
28:29But the Kramer's Cherokee was also inside the TCA.
28:33With all of the jets taking off and landing at LAX, private planes must first get permission to enter this
28:39area.
28:43Piper 4891.
28:45All clear for takeoff, Torrance.
28:48William Kramer was a newcomer to Los Angeles.
28:50But investigators learned that he was well aware of the limits imposed by the TCA.
28:56He knew that it was restricted airspace.
29:01And in the cockpit of Kramer's Cherokee, the confirmation.
29:05Investigators find a map of the Los Angeles terminal control area.
29:14Investigators make another puzzling discovery.
29:17They learned that the Kramer's proposed flight plan took them from Torrance to Long Beach,
29:22then up to Ontario, and finally to Big Bear Lake, at a cruising altitude of 3,000 meters.
29:29That plan keeps him well out of the TCA.
29:36The fact of the matter is, the Cherokee flew into the TCA and hit the DC-9 in restricted airspace
29:42without a clearance.
29:45So how had Kramer flown into danger, and why hadn't he let anyone know?
29:50On the ground in Cerritos, one possible answer emerges.
29:55Heart disease runs in Kramer's family, and the initial autopsy results show a major blockage.
30:14Kramer may have suffered a heart attack on the flight, leaving the plane without a pilot.
30:26Samples of William Kramer's heart tissue are sent to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology for testing.
30:32If he suffered a heart attack, it might explain why he didn't call in to LA approach.
30:38It's totally possible that he could have had the heart attack, fell back, pulled the airplane up,
30:45and that's why he didn't try and avoid the DC-9.
30:50But no matter why Kramer was flying in restricted airspace, air traffic controller Walter White should have been able to
30:57see him.
30:58Kramer's plane should have appeared on White's radar.
31:04Before being questioned by investigators, White reviews the radio calls from that morning.
31:10He needs to be sure of what he said, and what he saw.
31:17Richard Wentworth was one of the investigators who talked to White.
31:23At any time, did you see the Piper Cherokee on your scope?
31:28No. No, sir. The Piper's target was not displayed. It is my belief that it was not on my radar
31:37scope.
31:40He, uh, was positive that the aircraft was not there for him to see.
31:48NTSB investigators aren't satisfied with White's memory.
31:53While the radar data is being analyzed,
31:58news arrives from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology about William Kramer's heart.
32:03Are you all right, Bill?
32:08Results from a detailed study of his body show that while he had advanced heart disease,
32:13William Kramer was not fighting a heart attack before the collision.
32:18Investigators must find another explanation for why the Kramer's flight went into the Los Angeles terminal control area.
32:26While he had submitted a flight plan,
32:28small planes like Kramer's Cherokee don't have sophisticated instruments.
32:33Like most private pilots, Kramer was navigating by landmarks like freeways.
32:39That meant keeping an eye both on the landscape below and the airspace around him.
32:47No, it's definitely the 405.
32:51Where is it again?
32:56John Andrews is an aviation expert who testified about the circumstances of the Cerritos disaster.
33:02The pilot of the Piper was navigating by visual landmarks, possibly attempting to follow parallel to a freeway.
33:11And that he had become confused about which freeway he should have been following.
33:16New to California, perhaps bewildered by the tangle of freeways below him,
33:20Kramer may have flown into the terminal control area without knowing it.
33:29There are no lines on the ground that says the TCA starts here and at this altitude.
33:33You have to look at a chart, you have to interpret that.
33:39Investigators are now confident they can explain why Kramer was inside the controlled airspace of the TCA.
33:48But when he finally gets a look at the air traffic control radar record,
33:52Richard Wentworth is convinced that Walter White should have been able to see the Piper.
34:01We were able to determine that the aircraft that collided with Aeromexico was there to be seen.
34:11So why hadn't White reacted to the Kramer's plane if it was on his radar?
34:20When Walter White came to work that day, the arrival station was being controlled by Carl Grundman.
34:26Hey Carl, how's it going?
34:28Hey.
34:29Grundman believes that long-standing radar problems were the reason White didn't see the Kramer's plane.
34:35I can sit in for you.
34:36Controllers have been complaining about the radars for a long time.
34:40All right. Thanks a lot. Take care.
34:41We had reported problems with the radar not picking up targets several times.
34:48When radar signals strike a target, they bounce back to the receiver.
34:53But if buildings or mountains interrupt the radar, the return signal can disappear.
35:01You may lose one target. You may lose two targets.
35:05It may not be presented for one sweep.
35:10Did you see the Piper Cherokee on your scope?
35:14No, sir.
35:16But that doesn't mean that the target isn't there.
35:19A blind spot is only an instantaneous thing. It's not a continuous thing.
35:26I think I lost one.
35:28There were also holes that were just because the radar was old.
35:33It was just not as accurate as it might have been.
35:36It was not state-of-the-art equipment. That's for darn sure.
35:42There's an effect called flicker. When a computer becomes overloaded, the scope will flicker.
35:48Every now and then, targets will drop out or can drop out. We reviewed that data.
35:55We had no evidence that there were any malfunctions of any systems in Los Angeles.
36:11There is another possible explanation.
36:14If the Cherokee had appeared on the radar, White still could have missed it.
36:19Investigators focus on the other plane in the sky that day, the Grumman Tiger.
36:27Private planes are required to contact air traffic control if they are entering the terminal control area.
36:35But the Tiger was already deep into the TCA before it radioed Walter White.
36:43One approach. 66 Romeo is on a flight from Fullerton.
36:47Cruising altitude is 4,500. We'd like following.
36:51Grumman 66 Romeo, are you at 4,500 now?
36:54Negative. We're at 3,400 and climbing.
36:58Okay, you are right in the middle of the TCA, sir.
37:00There was an aircraft that was east of the airport, which he became involved in,
37:05that was what they called a violator.
37:08Grumman 66 Romeo, I suggest in future you look at your TCA chart.
37:12You just had an aircraft...
37:14The problem with the conversation between the controller and the pilot of the Grumman is that it went on too
37:19long.
37:20Why were you so mesmerized by the Grumman?
37:24I thought he posed a risk.
37:27This occurred during a critical time at which the two aircraft to the southwest of his display,
37:34which was the Aeromexico and the Cherokee, were merging.
37:40But even if the Cherokee signal did appear on White's radar, and even if he had seen it,
37:47investigators discover that White still would not have had all the information he needed.
37:54Radar signals only show controllers that a plane is in range.
38:00Transponders on planes can broadcast other information, including height and speed.
38:07But at the site of the Cherokee wreckage, investigators discover the plane's transponder is a basic model.
38:13It only sends out information on the plane's direction.
38:17It provides no information about the plane's altitude.
38:22So these controllers were pretty much used to seeing a little triangle which represented a VFR aircraft with no altitude
38:30readout,
38:32traversing all over the place.
38:35And unless they learned firsthand from the pilot,
38:39they had an expectation that the aircraft would not intrude into that airspace.
38:47Grumman 66 Romeo Squat 454
38:50Investigators believe that White's divided attention, perhaps made worse by an older radar system,
38:56explains why air traffic control never warned the DC-9 of the danger posed by Kramer's Cherokee.
39:02Any landmarks that we might be able to use as a visual.
39:05But there's another mystery that hasn't been solved.
39:10I don't know.
39:11Studying the radar records from the day, NTSB investigators are startled by what they find.
39:17Neither the crew of the DC-9, nor the pilot of the smaller Cherokee, took any evasive action before the
39:24crash.
39:25Both pilots appear completely unaware of each other.
39:30Why hadn't the pilots of either airplane reacted?
39:34Visibility was over 20 kilometers.
39:36How could two planes collide in the clear blue sky?
39:45To try to get a better sense of what was happening inside the Aeromexico cockpit,
39:50investigators listened to the airplane's cockpit voice recorder.
39:58The flight crew had put Walter White on their overhead speakers.
40:02The microphone for the cockpit voice recorder was right beside the speakers.
40:06Depart Seal Beach, heading 320.
40:09Much of what the pilot said was drowned out by White's voice.
40:13Produce speed to 2, 0, 0, then descend and maintain 6,000.
40:17Altimeter of bugs.
40:22The radar information paints a puzzling picture.
40:30It indicates that for more than a minute, the Kramers Cherokee was there to be seen by the Aeromexico crew.
40:39And if the Kramers had looked out of their right side window, they would also have seen the Aeromexico jet.
40:48But neither plane altered its course.
40:51Neither plane took any action to avoid the deadly collision.
41:01Investigators believe that if William Kramer was indeed lost, and using the freeways as a guide,
41:06he might never have seen the approaching DC-9.
41:10The window he would have been looking out of was the pilot's window.
41:14But the DC-9 was coming from the other direction.
41:18This would have been a very unfortunate situation, because the DC-9 was approaching from the far right side,
41:24and in fact could only be seen out the passenger's window, which was on the right side of the aircraft.
41:29For the crew of the DC-9, the very size of the much smaller Cherokee could have prevented them
41:35from seeing the plane before it was too late.
41:39In some cases, when a small aircraft is closing very rapidly, by the time the aircraft becomes
41:44large enough for you to easily see it, it's almost too late to avoid the collision.
41:50The FAA generally is taken sort of as a rule of thumb that you need about 12 seconds in order
41:56to see
41:57an aircraft, decide that it's a threat, and then execute an avoidance maneuver.
42:01In the case of the collision at Cerritos, by the time the aircraft became large enough to see,
42:07you were down very close to that 12-second limit. In case after case of mid-air collisions,
42:12we found out that the aircraft gave no indication that they saw each other until the time they actually collided.
42:20The design of the cockpit windshield may also have contributed to the disaster.
42:25It's possible that during part of the approach, at least for one of the pilots, the aircraft was
42:30actually behind the center post, and unless the pilot moved his head back and forth to clear that
42:35airspace, unless he had a reason to do that, it's possible the aircraft was obscured during part of
42:40the time in which he might have had a chance of seeing the other aircraft.
42:44Ignition.
42:48The disaster over Cerritos revealed several tragic weaknesses in the air traffic control system.
42:58One of the most glaring was that pilots could not be relied on to see and avoid each other.
43:04They'd need new technology to keep a mid-air collision from happening again.
43:16A small California neighborhood is rocked by a terrifying plane crash.
43:2582 people are killed when a private plane slams into a large passenger jet.
43:35The devastation is enormous.
43:41More than a dozen houses are damaged, several leveled completely.
43:49The NTSB report makes it clear that there are glaring problems across the air traffic system.
43:55And these concerns must be addressed before, inevitably, there is another mid-air disaster.
44:02The FAA, which regulates the airline industry in the United States, acted swiftly to improve safety.
44:10A new kind of transponder was required for smaller planes, the kind that might have helped air traffic
44:16controllers recognize that the private aircraft posed a danger.
44:20If you had an aircraft that flew under a controlled airspace,
44:28you would have a transponder and you would be required to have altitude encoding or reporting.
44:38That way it would be no mistake as to whether you had an intruder or not.
44:44A new system called Mode C Intruder was also developed to warn air traffic controllers.
44:50Mode C Intruder is an automated program that is now incorporated in all our major radar facilities
44:57that if an aircraft should inadvertently intrude, the controller will now be given a visual and an aural alert,
45:07thus giving him time to provide a timely warning to the pilot.
45:15Even for the most diligent pilot, the old strategy of see and avoid had serious limitations.
45:23Those limitations would be addressed with the most important innovation of all.
45:28The major technological innovation that came out of Cerritos mid-air
45:32was the congressional mandate that all air carrier aircraft operating within the United States
45:38would be outfitted with TCAS, Traffic Collision and Avoidance System.
45:44John Andrews worked on the team that developed TCAS.
45:48The TCAS Collision and Avoidance System, which was under development,
45:52quite possibly could have prevented this accident.
45:55TCAS gives the pilot a traffic advisory at 45 seconds before the potential collision.
46:03Hey Maria, everything okay back there?
46:05And then at approximately 25 seconds or so before the potential collision,
46:09a resolution advisory is given to actually tell the pilots to climb or descend
46:14to avoid the altitude of the other aircraft.
46:23Today, commercial airlines around the world use TCAS.
46:34The pilot of the Grumman Tiger, the so-called third pilot,
46:38whose actions may have played a part in the crash,
46:41was eventually charged for flying into controlled airspace in a careless and reckless manner.
46:53For Walter White, the effect of the disaster over Cerritos could not be overcome.
47:03Walter came back to the TRACON, and I think it was probably a month or so later.
47:13And I can't give you exactly how long he stayed there, but it wasn't very long.
47:18And he just got up and said, no, no thank you.
47:31And as far as I know, he didn't talk to airplanes again.
47:40Within a year of the incident, the old radars at LAX were replaced.
47:52In Cerritos, a memorial garden now marks the day of the disaster.
47:59Mary Wong has since remarried,
48:01but the pain of returning home that day will never go away.
48:06There's nobody here.
48:08The house is empty.
48:10Derek was already living in an apartment in San Diego, and here I was.
48:15I was no longer a mother, except to Derek, and I was no longer a wife.
48:21And so it shattered my whole world.
48:25Days after the disaster, Mary Wong met one of the few people
48:30who could fully understand her loss.
48:34I went to the memorial service, and it was very important to me to try to meet somebody else
48:39who had gone through this.
48:41And I knew from reading stories that Teresa had lost her husband and two children.
48:48And so I saw someone there who I thought was Teresa.
48:52She says, are you Teresa Estrada?
48:53And I said, yes, I am.
48:54She says, well, my name is Mary Wong.
48:59And she says,
49:01I said, I lost my husband and children also.
49:05I just wanted to grab her and hug her, because she was feeling what I was feeling.
49:13So we had an immediate connection, and we've maintained our friendship over these 20 years.
49:22Everyone who flies today has been affected by the mid-air collision over Cerritos.
49:28The disaster led to historic improvements in aviation safety.
49:33Since the full adoption of the TCAS system,
49:36there has not been another mid-air collision in the United States.