Wreckage from Avianca Flight 52, a 707, is shown in the back yard of homeowner Sam Tissenbaum in Cove Neck, N.Y., Jan. 26, 1990. At least 66 passengers were killed in crash, ...

Thirty-five years after Avianca Airlines Flight 52 from Colombia exhausted its fuel and crashed on the North Shore of Long Island, killing 73 of 158 people aboard, the disaster’s legacy endures.

Avianca Airlines Flight 52 slammed into a wooded hillside in the Long Island village of Cove Neck on Jan. 25, 1990. There were 158 people aboard; 73 of them died.

I already knew the basics going in: On Jan. 25, 1990, Avianca Flight 52 took off from Bogotá, Colombia, stopped in Medellín, where Ms. López and others boarded, then headed to John F. Kennedy ...