Dark clouds in the skies

It was with a profound sense of poignancy that I read your Column One (June 3) about the air crash disaster that occurred over the Grand Canyon in 1956. My grandparents -- Walter and Stella Fuchs -- were passengers on the ill-fated United Airlines DC-7.

Although I was only 8 years old at the time, I vividly recall the horror and chaos that surrounded my family as the tragic news came to light. I did not know the details of the crash site until reading the article: the pools of melted aluminum, debris forced deep into rock surfaces, the fact that most of both planes still remain much as they were 50 years ago. To those of us whose loved ones’ lives were extinguished that day, echoes of the event still reverberate in unexpected ways too numerous to detail here. But I thank you for publishing the story in such a thoughtful and sensitive manner.

JAMES FRANK

Santa Monica

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Re “Nation’s Air Traffic Control Again Nearing Obsolescence,” June 3

I am an electronics engineer. In all my career, if there was one thing of which we engineers were certain, it was that every product we put into production and into the hands of customers was obsolete. At any time when a product was released for production, we already had many good ideas as to how to build a better one.

Why did we not build those better products? We did, and they went to customers years later. So of course the country’s air traffic control system is obsolete. It was obsolete the day it went into operation.

WILLIAM F. STEAGALL

El Segundo