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…