Westminster Family Copes With Tragedy

An American flag flew at half staff Thursday in front of the Westminster home of Jerry Avritt, 46, who died in the crash of a Pan American World Airways Boeing 747 in Scotland.

Inside, Judy Avritt quietly studied her hands as she sat on a sofa and talked about the sudden death Wednesday of her husband, the flight engineer aboard that plane.

Sitting in front of a flickering television set, Avritt said that the fiery scenes from repeated news reports of the crash had convinced her that the tragedy was not just a nightmare.

“I guess we’re still pretty much in shock,” she said. “It takes a while for the shock to wear off. But I’ve accepted it. At first I had some hope, but then after I watched it on TV, I could see that nobody could survive it.”

Jerry Avritt worked out of New York City, flying the Atlantic on Pan Am’s European routes and commuting home via Los Angeles International Airport. He had lived at the home on Bexley Street for 16 years.

“He was supposed to come home tonight (Thursday) from New York,” his widow said, as her children, Marcus, 16, and Angela, 15, sat nearby.

Judy Avritt said there was a reason for the American flag outside.

“Jerry had been in the Air Force, and he really loved it,” she said. “He served four years right after graduating from high school in Oceanside in 1960. He was in SAC (Strategic Air Command). The Air Force is where he learned how to work on jet engines and where he became involved with airplanes. He loved working with airplanes.”

Born in Lebanon, Ky., Avritt came to California when he was about 12, Judy Avritt said. “I met him when I was living in Inglewood. He was going to Northrop Institute then; it was after he had gotten out of the Air Force. He was taking courses so he could work with the airlines.”

That, she said, “would be 20 years this coming June. That’s how long we’ve been married.”

A neighbor, Judy Kappen, trying to console her friend, said, “Jerry was a lot of fun. . . . He was always very helpful; whenever anybody in the neighborhood needed mechanical help, he was there.”

Judy Avritt said her husband “really had such a good sense of humor. And he liked to be knowledgeable about as many things as he could. He read a lot; he went to the Westminster Library so often that he knew everyone there by their first names. The last book he was reading was on Chinese art. We had bought a Chinese vase at an auction, and Jerry wanted to learn more about Chinese art.”

Avritt was hired by National Airlines in 1967 and then went with Pan Am when the two airlines merged. He transferred to the jumbo 747s about a year ago, she said. “When he went on the 747s, that’s when he started making the European flights. Before that, he had mostly been flying to South America.”

Kappen tried to summarize the situation for both the Avritts and the Bexley Street neighborhood.

“Our reaction is shock; we just can’t believe it,” said Kappen. “There’s this awful situation of not knowing whether this crash happened because of a mechanical thing or because of a terrorist. And there is anger, I will tell you, in this neighborhood if it was caused by a terrorist.

“And there is sadness, because we’ve all lost a friend.”