Nearby Pilot Described Evidence of Air Disaster : FAA Tapes Record Report to Controller After Aug. 31 Collision Over Cerritos

The first description of disaster was dispassionate, offered by an American Airlines pilot passing 8,000 feet above the flames in Cerritos:

“OK. I see a, uh, very large, uh, smoke screen off the left side of the aircraft,” the pilot reported. It looks like . . . something smoked up, uh, ahead, and then went down in.”

Thus it was on Aug. 31 that a 35-year-old air traffic controller confirmed what his radar screen had already told him--an Aeromexico DC-9 had just crashed on approach to Los Angeles International Airport. Only after the passing pilot offered his eye-witness account of the scene on the ground did the controller stop trying to radio a jetliner whose crew and passengers were already dead.

On Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration released a 14-minute tape recording of the unidentified controller’s radio communications with the pilot of the Aeromexico DC-9 and several other fliers. The terse, emotionless exchanges occurred just before and after the Mexican jetliner and a single-engine Piper Archer collided over Cerritos, killing 67 people in the two planes and 15 on the ground.

The tape recording confirms the controller’s previous statements to investigators that the Piper Archer apparently never appeared on his radar screen and that he was unaware of its presence in the terminal control area (TCA) that surrounds Los Angeles International Airport. The tape also showed that there was no radio contact between the controller and the Piper Archer’s pilot, William K. Kramer, who died in the collision along with his wife and daughter.

But while providing little new information about what may have actually caused the tragedy, the recording did confirm the FAA’s contention that the unauthorized presence of a third plane in the control area occupied the controller’s attention in what may have been crucial moments before the collision.

FAA officials have announced plans to take action against the pilot of that third plane, Roland P. Furman of Buena Park, for allegedly violating the Los Angeles control area. The agency intends to suspend his pilot’s license for 180 days.

Agency investigators have alleged that Furman, 55, entered the control area about five miles north-northeast of where the collision occurred. Furman has requested an informal meeting with agency attorneys to discuss the allegations against him, FAA spokesman Russ Park said Tuesday.

According to the FAA’s recording released Tuesday, Aeromexico Flight 498 first radioed Los Angeles Approach Control at 11:47 a.m. on Aug. 31 with a routinely cheery salutation.

“Los Angeles approach, good morning, this is Aeromexico four sixty four four ninety eight, uh, we’re level one, correction, seven thousand (feet).”

The jetliner was given instructions to prepare for landing on Runway 25 Left at Los Angeles International. The Aeromexico pilots acknowledged the instructions, routinely radioing, “Affirmative, two five left runway.”

For the next two minutes, the controller, who had five years’ experience with the FAA, devoted his time and attention to two other in-bound commercial airliners, giving both landing instructions and advising them of other air traffic in the area.

At 11:50 a.m., the controller instructed Aeromexico Flight 498 to reduce its airspeed to 210 knots, and the jetliner complied. He then notified the Aeromexico pilots of “traffic 10 o’clock, one mile northbound, altitude unknown.” (FAA officials said Tuesday that the advisory was intended to warn of another aircraft which was not a factor in the collision.)

A minute later, the controller instructed Flight 498 to cut its speed by 20 knots and drop down from 7,000 feet to 6,000 feet. The Aeromexico pilots acknowledged the instructions by repeating them: “One niner zero and then descend and maintain six thousand.”

Eleven seconds after that, Furman radioed Approach Control. He indicated that he had taken off from Fullerton, was on a flight to Monterey and was requesting “following”--an FAA air traffic information service for private pilots.

Before responding to Furman, the controller radioed Flight 498, advising the Aeromexico pilots to maintain their airspeed, alerting them that “We have a change in plans, sir.” The controller intended to let Flight 498 switch its landing to another runway that would bring it closer to Aeromexico’s terminal facilities, FAA officials said Tuesday.

“All right, we’ll maintain one niner zero,” the Aeromexico pilots responded at 11:52 a.m.

It would be Flight 498’s last broadcast.

‘Remain Clear’

Four seconds later, the controller asked Furman to dial in a frequency on the transponder of his rented single-engine Grumman plane so that Approach Control could more easily identify his location. He advised Furman to “remain clear of the TCA.” Within the same minute, the controller radioed the Aeromexico pilots to prepare for landing on another runway, 24 Right.

There was no response from the jetliner, according to the transcript. In practice, pilots are expected to acknowledge such critical instructions.

At 11:52:36, the controller notified Furman that he was “right in the middle of the TCA. . . . I would suggest in the future you look at your TCA chart. You just had an aircraft pass right off your left above you at five thousand (feet) and we run a lot of jets through there right at thirty-five hundred.”

“What do you suggest I do now?” Furman asked.

But by then, according to the transcript, the controller had turned back to Flight 498, repeatedly trying without success to raise the Aeromexico pilots.

Request for Help

Finally, at 11:56, the controller contacted an inbound American Airlines jet that had been flying behind and 1,000 feet above the Aeromexico DC-9.

“I want you to look around at 11 o’clock and about five miles,” the controller requested of the American pilots. “I just lost contact with a DC-9. Let me know if you see anything down there, please.”

The American pilot asked at what altitude the DC-9 was flying. “He was last assigned six thousand feet,” the controller said. “He’s no longer on my radar scope.”

The grim response came five seconds later from the American Airlines pilot:

“OK. I see a, uh, very large, uh, smoke screen off the left side of the aircraft, abeam uh, the, uh, the nose of the airplane, right off our left. It is a very large smoke, uh, column, uh, coming from it and, uh, emanating from the ground. . . . At our altitude at eight thousand feet, there’s another smoke column vertically overhead. It looks like . . . something smoked up, uh, ahead, and then went down in.”

Point of Collision

Aeromexico Flight 498 had collided at 6,500 feet with Kramer’s four-seat Piper Archer that had entered the terminal control area without authorization after taking off from Torrance at 11:40 a.m. on a flight to Big Bear.

FAA officials have said that such airspace intrusions occur regularly around Los Angeles International, and they have vowed to crack down on violating pilots in the wake of the Cerritos tragedy.

Since the crash, the controller who was in contact with the Aeromexico DC-9 has taken a two-week vacation and has returned to duty, said Jack McMillen, manager of quality assurance for the FAA’s Air Traffic Division, which supervises controllers.

The controller received psychiatric counseling to overcome whatever trauma he may have experienced after the incident, McMillen said.

“As far as I know,” McMillen said, “he’s back to work and fine now.”

The tape-recording released Tuesday does not fix the exact time at which the collision occurred. The National Transportation Safety Board on Thursday is expected to release transcripts of flight data and cockpit voice recordings taken from the Aeromexico jetliner that may pinpoint the time of the collision.