Commercial Airplane Crashes in Southern California

* Feb. 1, 1991: An arriving USAir Boeing 737 slams into a SkyWest commuter plane preparing to take off at Los Angeles International Airport, killing all 12 people aboard the smaller plane and 22 on the airliner.

* Dec. 7, 1987: In a revenge murder scheme, a former USAir ticket agent smuggles a gun aboard a Pacific Southwest Airline jetliner, kills a fellow passenger and attacks the cockpit crew, after which the jetliner crashes near Paso Robles in San Luis Obispo County. All 46 people aboard die. USAir had recently bought PSA and the ticket agent’s former supervisor was on board the flight.

* Aug. 31, 1986: An Aeromexico DC-9 collides with a Piper Archer PA-28 over Cerritos and crashes into a residential neighborhood, claiming 82 lives in all: 64 people on the jetliner, three people in the Piper, and 15 people on the ground. Damage to homes and other buildings was nearly $4 million. Seventeen homes were badly damaged or destroyed.

* Sept. 25, 1978: A Pacific Southwest Airlines Boeing 727 and a Cessna 172 collide over San Diego, killing 144 people in the worst air disaster in California.

* March 1, 1978: During takeoff from Los Angeles International, a Honolulu-bound Continental Airlines DC-10 tips on one wing when several of its tires blow out. Its fuel tanks rupture and fuel ignites. Four people die and seven are injured.

* Jan. 9, 1975: A Cessna 150 collides with a Golden West Airlines Dehavilland Twin Otter over Whittier, killing 14.

* Jan. 18, 1969: A United Airlines Boeing 727 plunges into the Pacific Ocean near Marina del Rey, killing 37.

* Jan. 13, 1969: A Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) DC-8, on a landing approach, crashes into the Pacific eight miles from Los Angeles International, breaking in half and killing 15. Thirty people survive in a portion that remains afloat.

Source: Times news files.