Cerritos plane crash victims remembered 40 years later

Just before noon on Monday, a group held hands in silence at the memorial in Cerritos to commemorate the exact time an Aeromexico DC-9 was clipped by the pilot of a Piper Cherokee, leaving 82 people on the planes and on the ground dead.

The city held a ceremony to remember the victims and those affected 40 years later.

"So it was a tragedy that is etched in our lives forever and ever. Many of you here lost friends, family. We did as well ... a life-changing experience," former mayor Don Knabe said.

Johnna Garcia lost her father in the 1986 crash. He was flying home to LAX from a fishing trip in Mexico with friends. Incredibly, a Polaroid taken of him landed in a tree near Carmenita Road and was recovered by a cleanup crew.

"It's the only thing I had left to remember him by, as far as photos, and I knew he was happy ... look at the fish he got," Garcia said.

Major changes were made after the disaster, including the development and implementation of what's known as TCAS, which stands for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System. It warns pilots when other planes get too close.

"Their lives weren't completely in vain because I had no idea those changes had been made because of the accident and so there was some comfort in that, but the first feeling I felt was anger," Eddie Cronkhite said.

Cronkhite's mother, brother, sister and two family friends were among the 15 killed in the neighborhood.

Diana Meldon lives five houses away from where the jet wreckage landed.  Her sister witnessed it all. "She says she heard a big boom and so she was in the house and so she went to the back and she actually saw it come down," Meldon said.

The names of each of the victims were read in their honor. They've been permanently etched on two walls in the sculpture garden.