1986 Year in Review

Dennis Daily: Death rained from the skies over suburban Los Angeles in late August. An Aeromexico DC-9 on a landing approach to LA International Airport was struck was by a light plane. The DC-9 slammed nearly upside down into a residential neighborhood.

Speaker: I was sitting in my front yard and I looked up and I saw this plane coming down and it was spinning around and then I thought I was dead for sure. It was just too scary.

Dennis Daily: UPI Radio's Bob Brill went to the scene to describe what happened.

Bob Brill: There are just parts of bodies all over the place. The bodies being covered up, of course, with the yellow bags which the authorities always do at any scene where there is death. There are parts of personal effects such as handbags, luggage all over the place, a baby shoe and things like that. It certainly is one very, very messy scene.

Dennis Daily: More than 85 died in the accident; three on the small plane, 14 on the ground and the others in the DC-9. The incident became a focal point for a re-examination of air safety. That same August 31st, 400 people died when a Soviet Cruiseliner collided with a cargo ship in the Black Sea.