PSA Flight 182 was a Pacific Southwest Airlines commercial flight that flew on a Sacramento, California-Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles-Lindbergh Field, San Diego route. The flight crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, killing everyone on board, plus two on board a small aircraft and 7 on the ground, on September 25, 1978.
At 9:01 AM on that day, N533PS, a Boeing 727-214 on Flight 182, was over the North Park neighborhood of San Diego, beginning its final approach into Lindbergh Field. A Cessna, flown by two Commercial-rated pilots (not by a single student pilot as often incorrectly cited), clipped the right wing of Flight 182, sending both crashing into the neighborhood below. The subsequent National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation concluded that the primary cause of the accident was the failure of the PSA flight crew to follow proper Air Traffic Control (ATC) procedures, although serious errors on the part of ATC were also named as a contributing factor. Additionally, the Cessna pilots, for reasons unknown, did not maintain their assigned heading after completing a practice instrument approach.
The PSA pilots reported that they had the Cessna in sight, and a study conducted by Boeing determined that the Cessna's target should have remained visible for sufficient time to correct the collision situation.
The National Transportaton Safety Board recommended the immediate implementation of a terminal radar service area around Lindbergh-San Diego International airport to provide for the separation of aircraft, and also recommended an immediate review of control procedures for all busy terminal areas. The impact of these recommendations is reflected in today's arrangement of airspace around Lindbergh Field--A Class B area (formerly referred to as a Terminal Control Area) now exists around Lindbergh to provide for the separation of all aircraft operating in the area.
128 passengers and 7 crew members on Flight 182, 2 on board the Cessna and 7 people on the ground were killed. The Flight 182 disaster remains the single worst aircraft accident in California history.
See also
The most up to date information on this incident is as follows:
1. The Controllers were inhibited in their ability to asist PSA due to the lack of RADAR in the tower.
2. The flow control procedures aligned aircraft in such a way that an error in judgement was inevitable. PSA indicated they had the "traffic in sight" (the Cessna). Due to the flow pattern, the traffic they had in sight was another commercial aircraft nearly 4 times the distance away. The flight crew of the 727 failed to maintain the provisions of the "maintain visual separation" clearance, which includes immediately advising the controlling facility if visual contact is lost.
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