Many Who Witnessed Fiery El Toro Crash Still Shaken : Counseling: Red Cross office and hot line flooded from spectators, some children, consumed by sight of sudden death.

It has been three days, but Anita Angel has not been able to shake the image of that fireball hurtling down the runway at El Toro’s Marine Corps Air Station.

Until Sunday’s fatal crash that killed Florida stunt pilot James A. Gregory, Angel’s day at the El Toro Air Show had been a celebration of her passion for aviation and vintage aircraft.

Since the crash, however, the 32-year-old grocery clerk has not been able to sleep or even concentrate. At any given moment, she says, tears will stream down her face in a surge of emotion that she is powerless to tame.

“I keep putting myself in the pilot’s position just before it happened, when he saw the ground coming at him so fast and knowing that he couldn’t do anything to stop it. For him, that had to be suffering.”

Tuesday, Angel arrived at the Red Cross offices in Santa Ana with 34 other adults and children seeking peace of mind. It is a state that has been strangely elusive for many who were among the 500,000 people to witness the fiery, fatal crash of the F-86 Sabre jet.

Red Cross officials said that a steady stream of emotional telephone calls from air show spectators have been answered by the agency’s hot line since early Monday morning. And Tuesday evening’s session was the second meeting this week in which psychologists have been providing counseling to distressed adults and children.

“I think people are having difficulty believing what really happened,” said psychologist Zena D. Polly, before Tuesday’s meeting. “It was an event that took place in an unreal context, where things are supposed to be safe. It leaves people stunned and not quite sure about what to do.”

Since the Red Cross hot line opened Monday morning, Connie Kronen, chairman of the agency’s disaster mental health services, said volunteers were initially “overwhelmed” with the response from callers--about 100 on Monday, many of them seeking advice for children who also witnessed the crash.

“Parents see their children suddenly exhibiting clinging behavior or other things, and they need to be encouraged to talk about it with their children. . . . Sometimes, we need permission to cry.”

Some of the telephone calls, Kronen said, have come from professional pilots who say the crash stirred unpleasant memories of their own flying experiences.

Others, including Angel, have expressed some distress that the show was allowed to go on after the crash.

“They should have stopped the show immediately,” she said. “They didn’t even have a moment of silence. When you witness somebody die such a violent death, it’s just shocking. I can’t handle it.”

Angel expected that it would be some time before her enthusiasm for aviation would return to its previous level.

“I’m here looking for other ways to release my anxiety,” Angel said.