I was a student a SDSU on that day. It was hot, maybe 90. I had just come out of the locker room and heading for my racketball class. A girl was screaming, "That plane just crashed!" and was pointing to the West. A huge ball of fire and smoke was rising up in the distance. There was a smoke trail in a arc from the sky to the fireball. Another smaller smoke trail was to the right of the larger smoke trail. Immediately I thought of a mid air. I couldn't tell exactly where the jet had hit the ground however, so I though maybe they made it to the beach or the airport. I guess that was just wishful thinking.
I skipped class and went to the frat and turned on the TV. These were the days of a new device currently being employed by every station with much fanfare. The device was the "mini-cam." Every news station was bragging about their minicam coverage. As soon as I turned on the TV all stations were talking about, "Stay tuned for our minicam coverage of a PSA crash in Northpark." Sure enough the video made it in to every household tuned in at that moment. I'll never forget the scene as they panned around the crash site. At one moment they zoomed in on something on the ground. It was not recognisable for a moment. Just as I recognised it the camera man or director also recognised it and cut the video feed. It was a headless, bottomless, armless torso of a victim. Later I learned that most the victims were cut in half by the seat belts.
About one month later I went to the crash site to look around. Curiosity got the best of me I guess. There was still a 15 foot deep hole in the street where the 727 hit. Most of the debris had been hauled away but there were still papers and other ordinary household items scattered about. No police line or barricade kept lookie loos like me away. I picked up a piece of paper. It was a single page from a paperback. It's edges were burned all the way around. It was from the book Airport. Weird.
That crash made a big impression on me as well as the PSA crash where the fired CSA shot the crew. I was on my way to jumpseat on that flight but changed my mind, but that is another story. I consciously have avoided getting involved in accident investigations because of those crashes. I trust others will do a good job. I don't need anymore visions of that kind in my life.