VIDEO: The Day that Forever Changed the Lives of a City Resident & Former Mayor

It was around 11 a.m. on Sunday, August 31, 1986, when the AeroMéxico Flight 498 began its descent into Los Angeles. Around the same time, a private airplane departed Torrance en route to Big Bear. About an hour later, the two planes collided over a residential neighborhood in Cerritos, transforming a quiet community into the scene of major tragedy for both the aircrafts' passengers and city residents.

For those that witnessed and survived the Cerritos Air Disaster, the tragedy is still difficult to talk about, they say. Despite its horrific nature, many agree that the tragedy brought out the city’s community and human spirit through a life-changing experience that will be forever engrained in their memory.

Cerritos-Artesia Patch recently had the opportunity to speak with two residents that witnessed the air disaster: Gail Grossman, who lived just feet away from where the plane crashed, and Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe, who served as mayor of Cerritos during the tragedy.

Longtime Cerritos Resident Recalls the Fear and Trauma of that Day

That August morning, Gail Grossman along with her husband and son, were sitting around their kitchen table preparing to go to a baseball card show. As the three of them sat there talking, the sky suddenly turned dark, and a loud, ominous roar seemed to come closer and closer; and then it happened, a plane crashed just 200 feet from their front lawn, erupting into a fire that emitted a choking smoke and immediately turned their quiet block into the scene of one of the nation’s worst air disasters.

“When the plane came down it just blocked out all of the sun and then we heard this loud explosion,” Grossman said. “Immediately, my son ran down to help the neighbors.”

The crash of the wreckage destroyed 10 homes, many of which belonged to friends of the Grossmans, so their reaction was not one of surprise, but rather an eagerness to help, she said. They were particularly concerned with one neighbor’s son, who was a young boy at the time and was sitting on the front porch eating a sandwich when it happened.

Minutes later, the first responders began to arrive -- the first group was a crew from Santa Fe Springs, Grossman said.

In what seemed like a matter of moments, Grossman said her block was filled with people, including first responders, city officials, the Red Cross and news crews. Because of the chaos, entering and exiting her neighborhood was difficult. And if she wanted to leave the neighborhood, there was a very good chance that she would not be let back in

So, she stayed inside and watched the happenings from her five-inch black and white portable television.

The most disturbing part of the experience, she said, were the yellow tarps, which covered the scattered body parts of the plane’s passengers.

“Everyone knew what the yellow tarps were for,” she said. “And, they were everywhere.”

Grossman said the disaster was an intense experience for her on almost every sensory level. Coupled with the sounds of firemen, a burning plane, and a chaotic scene just feet away, the destruction is one that is seared into her memory -- an experience that was so traumatic, she sought counseling to deal with it.

“I couldn’t go inside a store or the mall,” she said. “I had to see what was going on outside; it was so hard to get over those fears.”

25 years later, it still stirs fears inside her.

“It was a very traumatic experience,” she said. “Sometimes my husband and I will sit on the driveway and watch the plane go over our house and remember it.”

Former Cerritos Mayor Don Knabe Remembers the Day that Forever Changed His Life

LA County Supervisor Don Knabe—who was mayor of Cerritos during that time—remembers receiving news of the accident just as he was walking out of church that day.

“The sheriff called me and told me, ‘a DC9 just went down in our city and I’m coming to get you’,” Knabe said. “Then, my wife turned on television and started screaming; from that moment on, it was nonstop.”

For Knabe, the air disaster was a “life-changing experience” that challenged him on both a professional and personal level. But his first order of business, was to work with the sheriff’s and fire department to help coordinate the response to get area cleaned up as quickly as possible.

“I was on-site within 30 minutes,” Knabe said. “It was like a warzone, with body parts all over.”

With the responsibility of being mayor during such a tragedy, there was no time to mourn yet, he said. The situation was not one he anticipated nor was he prepared for. With his title as mayor, Knabe said he found himself being pulled in many directions from working with first responders and residents to dealing with the pressures of the media.

During the middle of a press conference, he found out one of his friends was a victim of the crash, making the event that much more painful.

“You have to keep your composure and can’t panic,” Knabe said. “You have to bring everybody together and don’t overreact, and there’s no book that teaches you how to do that.”

One of his priorities, was to work with the LA County Department of Mental Health to help residents handle the traumatic effects from the gruesome event they witnessed. Knabe’s coordinated efforts, he said, have now been structured and have even become a national teaching model about how to coordinate a response to such devastating occurrences.

In fact, the former mayor's efforts were so highly commended that he spoke in Washington about his experience during the tragedy. He has also shared conversations with former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani, about dealing with city-wide disasters, Knabe told Patch.

To this day, Knabe said that the experience is still with him and that each year he thinks about those that were affected by the crash. But from the experience, he said he has learned a lot about how to be a leader and also how to work with people on a human level to comfort them during a time of crisis.

“You have to get to their hearts and souls and bring them peace,” he said. “Give them an opportunity to get out and get through it. All I can think about is how some of the families in Cerritos reacted and never recovered from losing a loved one or a kid, you just know it’s going to have a never-ending impact.”

City Invites Community to Attend 25th Anniversary Remembrance

The community is invited to attend the Cerritos Air Disaster 25th Anniversary Remembrance at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, August 31. The ceremony will be held at the Cerritos Air Disaster Memorial in the Cerritos Sculpture Garden which is located in the Civic Center.

The memorial will be a respectful gathering held in memory of the victims of the Aug. 31, 1986 mid-air collision. The remembrance will include a brief formal ceremony with the Cerritos City Council; a reading of the victims' names; a prayer for the victims and their loved ones; and a moment of silence.

For more information, please call the City's Community Participation Division at (562) 865-8101.