On Sunday, August 31, 1986, at approximately 11:46 a.m. PDT, Flight 498 began its descent into Los Angeles with 58 passengers and six crew members on board.

[3] The heavily damaged Piper descended uncontrollably after the collision, entering a flat spin, and falling onto an empty playground at Cerritos Elementary School.

It slammed into a residential neighborhood at Holmes Avenue and Reva Circle in Cerritos, crashing into the backyard of a house at 13426 Ashworth Place, where it exploded on impact.

[citation needed] The larger aircraft involved, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 with tail number XA-JED[7] named Hermosillo, was delivered in April 1969 to Delta Air Lines as N1277L before entering into service with Aeroméxico in November 1979.

[8] It was flying from Mexico City to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), with intermediate stops in Guadalajara, Loreto and Tijuana.

[9] N4891F was a privately operated Piper PA-28-181 Archer owned by the Kramer family, which was flying from Torrance to Big Bear City, California.

The TCA included a triangular slab of airspace from 6,000 to 7,000 feet (1,800 to 2,100 m) of altitude, reaching south to 33°42′50″N 118°00′25″W / 33.714°N 118.007°W / 33.714; -118.007 across the Piper's intended flight path.

The ATC had been distracted by another unauthorized private flight, a Grumman AA-5B Tiger, entering the TCA directly north of the airfield, which also did not have clearance.

In the television documentary Mayday, Estrada reported that she saw the explosion from a distance;[19] Thing requires that the person be at the scene and aware of the injury being caused to the victim.