All language subtitles for Mayday.S04E07.Out.of.Sight.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

East of Los Angeles,
a calm holiday weekend

is shattered by
a devastating explosion.

A neighbourhood 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 airliner crashed.

And find a way to stop it,
from ever happening again.

Los Angeles
International Airport, LAX,

is one of the busiest
in the world.

It's used by 40 million
passengers each year.

More than 15-hundred planes
take off and land every day.

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

Today, a junior air traffic
controller, Walter White,

will be handling
some of that traffic.

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 goin'?

Hey. Slow, slow, slow.

It was a long weekend

and it was a beautiful
day in Los Angeles.

It absolutely clear outside,

which we call
Chamber of Commerce type day.

You want to take
a break? Have a Cigarette?

I can sit in for you.
Sure. Why not?

That was my normal
assigned shift

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

wanted to go smoke a cigarette.

And I said sure. Traffic was
light. It wasn't very busy.

Uh, it was Sunday morning.

L.A. approach -
Good 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 time for a break,

Walter wanted to work
the sector.

As I remember it correctly,

he wanted to work it
for some proficiency time.

He hadn't worked it in a while.

ACL sixty, can you see
the runway two-five left?

Roger L.A. Approach.
Thank you.

Reduce speed to two-zero-zero,
then descend

and maintain 6-thousand.

Two-zero-zero.
Descend and maintain 6-thousand.

Thank you.
Have a nice day.

Several hundred
kilometers 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
would love it there.

...which
they plan to display back home.

Labour Day weekend
was the last weekend

before school was to start.

Um, 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 a, like,
father-son bonding weekend.

And it was also the first time

that they had traveled
without me.

Just east of L.A.,

the suburban city of Cerritos
wakes up slowly.

In the 1970's 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
and not go to church.

I'm going to go out

and get your favourite
things for a good breakfast.

Javier, go and take
a shower. I'll be back in a bit.

And I left to go
to the grocery store.

In the home was Alex.
He was fourteen.

His twin sister, Angelica.

Uh, she was asleep,
he was asleep still.

And Javier -
that was my sixteen-year-old -

and my husband.

As Estrada
leaves on her errand,

AeroMexico Fight 498 is just
twenty minutes from L.A.

Captain Antonio Valdez-Prom
is acting as Co-pilot

as they approach the city.

First Officer Jose Valencia
is piloting

this leg of their journey.

Ready
when you are Captain.

About 22 kilometers
south of LAX

sits 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 L.A.,

a region that has
over 6-thousand weekend flyers.

Fuel set. Flaps set.
Okay. We're all set for takeoff.

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 clear for takeoff
on Runway five... right.

They're
heading to Big Bear Lake...

Rolling tower.

...about 2-hundred
kilometers northeast.

A meticulous man,

William Kramer is an executive
for an engineering company.

Six years ago, at the age
of forty-seven, Kramer bought

his first airplane, a stylish
and swift Piper Cherokee.

Wings west
fifty-two twenty-five,

Los Angeles approach depart Seal
Beach, heading three- two-zero.

Expect a visual approach
runway two-five 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.

Confirm terminal search,
runway two-five left. Thank you.

Southeast of LAX, the
crew of AeroMexico Flight 498 is

still a few minutes from their
first contact with Walter White.

But in the skies
above Los Angeles,

a deadly series of events
is about to unfold.

Dozens of people
who have never met

will be bound together
forever,

in a tragedy that will affect
everyone who flies.

August 31st, 1986.
Labor Day weekend.

All clear for takeoff,
Torrance.

Just south of
Los Angeles,

William Kramer and his family

are finally on their
way for a long awaited holiday.

Ok, just an hour to go
and we're in Big Bear Lake.

They're reporting visibility
of fourteen miles today.

Pretty good.

As the Torrance
airport recedes behind him,

Kramer begins
climbing to 3-thousand metres

on his way
northeast to Big Bear Lake.

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

is approaching Los Angeles
International Airport.

Less than 2-thousand metres
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.
Holidays are over.

PSA seventeen
sixty-five,

Los Angeles approach toward,
one mile southbound...

It's not a busy
morning and one-by-one,

Arrivals Controller Walter White
guides his planes in safely.

At eleven forty-seven a.m.,

he gets his first
call from AeroMexico Flight 498.

VALDEZ-PROM: Los Angeles
Approach, good morning.

This is AeroMexico
four-nine-eight.

AeroMexico,
four-ninety-eight,

Los Angeles Approach.

Two-five left final
approach course.

Do you have information uniform?

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 air
space that's normally

found around heavily congested
airports or hub airports

where the traffic density's
extremely high and you

need to control the access into
and out of that airspace.

AeroMexico,
four-ninety-eight,

traffic ten o'clock, one mile
northbound, altitude unknown.

VALDEZ-PROM: Roger,
four ninety-eight.

AeroMexico,
four-ninety-eight, reduce

speed to one-niner-zero, then
descend and maintain 6-thousand.

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.

Hon, take a look at the map,

and look around the
four-oh-five, and see

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

Oh,
what am I looking for?

Walter White is
keeping his eye

on the AeroMexico jet
when his attention is abruptly

drawn to another plane that's
just appeared on his radar.

It's not one he's expecting.

Uh, one approach six-

six Romeo is on a flight
from Fullerton.

Cruising altitude is 4-thousand,
5-hundred. 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 the private plane,

he gets a call
from the AeroMexico DC-9.

VALDEZ-PROM: Uh.
what speed do you want?

We're reducing to, uh,
two niner zero...

no, no to one niner zero.

Uh, okay.
You can hold what you have sir.

White decides to give
the AeroMexico jet

the runway
closest to their gate.

Uh, change in plans,
sir. Stand by.

VALDEZ-PROM: Roger,
four ninety-eight.

With the DC-9 on hold,
White turns to the intruder.

Grumman six-six Romeo,

squawk four-five-two-four
remain clear of the, uh, TCA.

White tells
the pilot of the Grumman to use

a unique radio channel.

But he seems confused.

Four, five,
what were the other two numbers?

Four. Five. Two. Four

Grumman six-six Romeo.

Are you at 4-thousand, 5-hundred
right now?

Negative.
We're at 3-thousand,

4-hundred and climbing.
Ok.

You're right in the middle
of the TCA, sir.

Grumman six-six-Romeo,

I suggest in future that you
look at your TCA chart.

You just had an aircraft pass
right off your left

above you at 5-thousand,

and we run a lot of jets right
through there at 35-hundred.

Well,
what do you suggest I do now?

As the crew of
AeroMexico Flight 498 continue

to close in on the airport...

VALDEZ-PROM: Landing lights.

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

What was that?

AeroMexico
four-ninety-eight,

Los Angeles approach.

First Officer
Valencia tries

desperately to control
their dive.

AeroMexico
four-ninety-eight,

Los Angeles approach.

VALDEZ-PROM: This can't be.
I saw a huge explosion.

Just the red vibrant
colours of a, of fire.

Just huge explosion, like the
way a bomb might hit the ground.

White
is getting no response

from the AeroMexico jet.

AeroMexico
four-ninety-eight,

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, uh,
not really thinking.

And I hear Walter say
something like,

I think I lost one.

AeroMexico four-ninety-eight,
Los Angeles approach.

That immediately got
everybody's attention.

So we looked at the radars
and you could hear him

calling 'AeroMexico
four-ninety-eight.'

Uh, called him
several times on the radio.

Where was AeroMexico?

At this point we still weren't
absolutely sure

what had happened.

White calls
to an incoming jet for help.

American
three-thirty-three heavy...

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

I just lost contact with a DC-9,
let me know

if you see
anything down there please.

Uh, eleven o'clock, uh,
five miles. What altitude?

He was last
assigned six.

He's no longer
on my radar scope,

American three-three-
three heavy.

Okay, uh, I see a, uh,
very large, uh, smoke screen

off on the left side of the
aircraft, about eleven o'clock.

I went down the street
to go to my house

and I saw a woman's head and 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.

I could see fire in the whole
neighbourhood.

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, uh, address.

I'm responding to a large
fire north of ninety-one,

north of Carmenita.

They came back
and, uh, said,

'Well, we've got a report of an
airliner down.'

So I upgraded the response

to, uh, basically triple what
I initially asked for.

I'm calling for
a third alarm

and two air squads east of one
eight-three and Carmenita.

As we approached,
I realized that, in addition

to the, uh, aircraft parts in
the street, there were people,

body parts, which changed the
complexion of the whole thing.

Set up a perimeter.

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, you know,

saying, 'this is not right,
this is not right.

Somebody's gotta
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 in this
area you'll see a large

plume of black and white
smoke about three miles

west of Fullerton airport,
not far from...

Helicopter news
crews are quickly on the scene.

There was
a lot of fire in front of me.

And my house was just
totally on fire.

Frank! Angelica!
Javier! Angelica!

And I saw my neighbour,
Where are they?

I said to her,
'Rose, where's my family?

What happened?' And she goes,

'Oh, honey. Your family's in
here. They're over here.

We're looking for you.

Where are they?

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! Alex!
What happened?

Where's Angelica?
Where's Angelica?

I don't know.

Where's Javier?
Where's Papa?

I don't know mom.
I'm sorry.

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.

The tail section of the jet
has been catapulted

more than a block
from the crash site.

Hello?
Is there anybody in here?

As I surveyed the houses

and the crash site around me,
it was a very surreal experience

to, to stand right there for,
probably four or five minutes

before anybody else showed up
and not see another living soul.

I have got wreckage
all over the place.

There are no survivors.
Just fatalities.

I had dealt with death,
one,

one or two or three
people in a residential fire.

But never a whole
airliner full of people.

Let's go to work, guys.

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

I gave them the job of finding
body parts and wrapping them,

recovering them
with 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,
and it was treated with respect.

My memory of the incident
is in a muted shade of brown.

It's not black and white.
It's not vivid colour, you know?

The grass isn't green,
the houses don't have paint.

It's all some muted brown shade.

I'm told that that's my brain's
way of taking something

violent and horrible
and softening it a little bit

so I can live with it
and deal with it.

The whole corner of this
neighbourhood

has been torn apart.

Yellow sheets mark the bodies.

I count one, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight,

nine, ten, eleven
bodies right now.

Oh gosh. This neighbourhood
has been just devastated.

Sixteen 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, um, around noon.

And, uh, 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 twelve-twenty or
twelve-thirty 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.'

I said, '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, fifteen people
on the ground have been killed.

It's a horrifying situation.

Two planes have crashed
into a California neighbourhood.

Something's gone terribly
wrong in the skies above one

of the busiest
airports in the world.

Now investigators have to find
out exactly what's happened.

On the last
day of August in 1986, a lazy

Labour Day weekend is shattered
by an enormous explosion.

Two planes crash in L.A. County,
destroying several homes.

It is a grisly scene -

bodies are scattered throughout
a devastated neighbourhood.

Eighty-two people are dead.

Fifteen people on the ground
have been killed.

Another sixty-seven have
died in the tangled

wreckage of the two
planes involved.

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 mid-air
collision.

The idea that this had
been a mid-air collision

was already conveyed to us
before we even launched

out of hanger six back
when we got the word.

They saw two wreckages
coming down.

Um, 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, uh, pieces to see

if you can, uh,
determine how the aircraft,

what angle the aircraft may
have come together at.

Propeller marks on the
tail of the DC-9 and paint

from the Piper Cherokee -
reveal how the planes crashed.

It looks like, uh,
the Piper collided at the tail

section of the DC-9 and the
horizontal stabilizer came off.

Uh, 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 ninety degree angle.

Their combined speed
was 4-hundred

and fifty kilometres 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 examine
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 Kramer's 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 4-8-9-1,
all clear for takeoff, Torrance.

William Kramer was
a newcomer to Los Angeles.

But investigators
learn 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 learn that the Kramers'
proposed flight plan took them

from Torrance, to Long Beach,
then up to Ontario and finally

to Big Bear Lake, at a cruising
altitude of 3-thousand metres.

That plan keeps him
well out of the TCA.

The fact of the matter is,
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 alright, 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 L.A. 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, uh,
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 alright?
Yeah, I'm fine.

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 Kramer's

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.

Ah that's definitely
the four-oh-five...

Where is it again?

John Andrews is
an aviation expert who testified

about the circumstances
of the Cerritos disaster.

The, uh,
pilot of the Piper

was navigating
by visual landmarks,

possibly attempting to follow,
uh, parallel to a freeway.

And that he had become, uh,

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.

There are no lines
on the ground that says the TCA

starts here
and at this altitude.

You have to look at a chart.
You have to interpret that.

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 Walter White
came to work that day,

the Arrivals station was being
controlled by Karl Grundmann.

Hey Karl.
How's it goin'?

Hey.
Slow, slow, slow.

Grundmann believes
that long standing radar

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

Controllers had been

complaining about the radars
for a long time.

We had reported
problems with radar, uh,

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.

Uh, one approach
six-six Romeo

is on a flight from Fullerton.

Cruising altitude is 4-thousand,
5-hundred. We'd like following.

Grumman six-six Romeo.

Are you at 4-thousand, 5-hundred
right now?

Negative.
We're at 3-thousand,

4-hundred and climbing.

Okay, you are right
in the middle of a TCA, sir.

There was an aircraft
that was east of the airport,

which he became involved in.

That was what
they called the violator.

Grumman six-six-Romeo,

I suggest in future that you
look at your TCA chart.

You just had an aircraft
pass right...

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's 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.

So these controllers
were pretty much

used to see a little triangle,
which represented a VFR aircraft

with no altitude readout,
traversing all over the place.

And, unless they learned
firsthand from the pilot,

they had an expectation that
the aircraft would not

intrude into that airspace.

Grumann six-six Romeo.
Squawk four-five...

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.

Find any
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-9s,
nor the pilot of the smaller

Cherokee took any evasive
action before the crash.

Both pilots appear completely
unaware of each other.

Why hadn't the pilots of either
airplane, reacted?

Visibility was over 20
kilometres.

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

listen to the airplane's
cockpit voice recorder.

VALDEZ-PROM: Los Angeles
approach,

this is AeroMexico four
ninety-eight.

The flight
crew had put

Walter White on their overhead
speakers.

The microphone for the cockpit
voice recorder was

right beside the speakers.

approach, depart Seal beach
heading three two zero.

Much of what
the pilots said

was drowned out by
White's voice.

The radar information paints
a puzzling picture.

It indicates that,
for more than a minute,

the Kramer's 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 Aero Mexico 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 - but the DC-9 was
coming from the other direction.

This would have been
a very unfortunate, uh,

situation, because the DC-9 was
approaching from the far right

side and, in fact, could not be,
could only be seen out the

passenger's window, which was on
the right side of the aircraft.

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 a 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.

Uh, the FAA generally,
uh, has taken a,

sort of as a rule of thumb,
that you need about twelve

seconds in order to see
an aircraft, decide that it's

a threat and then execute
an avoidance maneuver.

In the case of the collision
in Cerritos,

by the time the aircraft
became large enough to see,

you were down very close to that
twelve-second limit.

In case after case of mid-air
collisions,

we find out that the aircraft
gave no indication that they

saw each other until the time
they actually collided.

The design of the
cockpit windshield may also

have contributed
to the disaster.

It's possible that,
during part of the approach,

at least for one of the pilots,

the aircraft was
actually behind the centre post.

And, unless the pilot
moved his head back and forth,

uh, to clear that air space,

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.

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'd need new
technology to keep a mid-air

collision from happening again.

A small California
neighbourhood is

rocked by a terrifying
plane crash.

Eighty-two people are killed

when a private plane slams
into a large passenger jet.

The devastation is enormous.

More than a dozen
houses are damaged--

several leveled completely.

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 was
required for smaller planes.

The kind that might have helped
air traffic controllers

recognize that the private
aircraft posed a danger.

If you had an aircraft
that flew under a controlled

air space, you would have a
transponder and you would

be required to have altitude
encoding or reporting.

That way it
would be no mistake as to

whether you had
an intruder or not.

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.

Range check.
VALDEZ-PROM: Seatbelts.

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 T-CAS, traffic
collision and avoidance system.

John Andrews worked on
the team that developed T-CAS.

The T-CAS -
Collision Avoidance System -

which was under development, uh,

quite possibly could have
prevented this accident.

T-CAS gives the pilot a traffic
advisory at forty-five

seconds before
the potential collision.

VALDEZ-PROM: Hey Maria,
everything ok back there?

And then, at approximately
twenty-five 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.

Today,
commercial airlines

around the world use T-CAS.

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,
uh, 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.'

Uh, 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 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?'

I said, 'Yes I am.'

She says, 'Well my mar,
my name is Mary Wong

and, uh, she says...

I said, 'I lost my husband
and children also.'

I, 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 twenty years.

Everyone who
flies to day has been

affected by the mid-air
collision over Cerritos.

The disaster led to historic
improvements in aviation safety.

Since the full adoption of the
T-CAS system, there has not

been another mid-air
collision in the United States.