Where PSA Flight 182 Crashed in San Diego in 1978

My grandmother was on this plane. My family talks about it but very infrequently. It was so traumatic for them that I think they just can’t give me detailed information. Thank you for this information, it means a lot to me.

My cousin was killed on the ground from this crash. It was believed that she was taking a shower at the time getting ready for school. We were both a year out of high school. Her body was never found. God bless all of the people who perished in this accident. The gentlemen hosting this video, did a real excellent job telling what happened. Not only did they close this area for 2 years, you could still smell the odor of death for this period of time. The twist to this story for my family is that in 1985 I too was in a plane crash in Dallas and survived. I was only 24 then.

The picture of the plane going down is one of the most terrifying photos ever taken. All passengers and crew knowing their lives would end in seconds. It has always haunted me.

I can't believe a memorial hasn't been built during all these years. They certainly deserve to have one.

My boss was one of the pilots in the Cessna. This is the first time I've seen photos from this crash. I have the newspapers from then but haven't ever been able to read them. Living through it was surreal. Like everyone else who died, he is missed to this day. Thank you for not sensationalizing the crash.

Kirk Smith of Palo Alto CA, graduated Palo Alto HS June, 17, 1978. Flying on Flt 182 to begin school at SDSU. An athlete and congenial man. Rest in peace, Kirk. You are remembered. I can still see your face.

I was there that fateful day about 7 blocks away from the crash site on Dwight & Nile Streets, standing outside at the time chatting with an auto technician. I was 24 years old at the time, attending San Diego Statue University, working part-time and awaiting a new contract with USAID in Egypt, from which I had recently returned. I heard the loud report of the mid-air collision which was so distinct that my mechanic and I knew immediately about where in the sky to look. I had enough presence of mind to be aware of the approximate amount time from when I first noticed the aftermath of the collision;  The time from when I first heard the sound to seeing flight 182 on fire but still fairly straight & level, as well as the fluttering parts of the Cessna 172 Skyhawk, was about 3 seconds. Almost immediately the PSA 727 began to list starboard and pitch downward. The approximate time I noted from that point to impact with the ground was less than 30 seconds! As soon as the jet impacted the ground, thick black smoke began to rise and I heard the very loud boom about a second after impact...about two seconds after impact I felt the "rumble" of the earth beneath my feet. And then I felt IT - that horrible pain in my gut as my brain and body began to synch up with the awful event just witnessed. I considered myself fairly stoic and not squeamish, but this was different; I knew instantly how 'big' this was and my knees were a little weak and my hands were shaking. Nevertheless, I felt I had to do something, anything...to help in some way if I could, so I jumped in my car and raced to the scene. I can tell you that it was utter bedlam. I noticed three things though that became etched in my mind; 1) just how fast the US Coast Guard helicopters were circling overhead at the scene of the accident, 2) the vortex of heat that caused papers, personal effects, luggage and briefcases to swirl upward, and 3) one of the massive jet engines lying in the middle of the street - it just seemed so unreal. As I walked toward the wreckage and fire to see if I could pull someone to safety, an off-duty police officer in his pajamas and a bathrobe with his badge looped in the robe's pocket, stopped me. He reminded me that there was nothing we could do and asked me back-off, which of course I did. Fairly quickly police and fire secured the area, moved nearly all of us farther away from the scene and began the gruesome work of recovery. Of course there's more to tell. I'm sure that those reading recall certain events in your life that just haunt you. Well, this is one of those for me. I didn't mention that I am licensed pilot and began flying at a very young age. Years later I rented a Cessna 172 in Maui to take my wife and a friend on a little sight-seeing tour of the island. The airspace that day seemed particularly busy, I wasn't familiar with the area and I ended up asking the Fixed Base Operator to fly us. I don't know, maybe this horrible event was in the back of my mind or maybe I was just being a bit more cautious. My heart still aches for those poor souls - and their loved ones - who lost their lives so tragically that day. This was particularly hard to watch but you did a great job of capturing the essence of this historical event and the editing is excellent - thank you!

My wife was a PSA flight attendant at that time and for many months had "deadheaded" every Monday morning on flight 182 with many of her PSA friends. When the radio station I was listening to in my car that morning interrupted the broadcast to report that flight 182 had crashed, I assumed that my wife had been killed and I was heading to the crash site. For reasons I'll never understand, that particular morning she had decided to "deadhead" on an earlier flight and we just coincidentally encountered each other at a freeway offramp. She was in extreme distress knowing that she had avoided death but lost so many of her best friends she had flown with for years. Healing took a long time and to this day still effects many family survivors.

Very sad day indeed my neighbor who was like my 2nd father was the flight engineer on this flight. He lived across the street from me and he would take me flying sailing and show me all about PSA . I never seen live footage before on this so this was pretty incredible sir. No words for the loss of lives and the loss of one if my best friend

My cousin, a flight attendant, was on that flight. My brother and his whole high school class saw the whole thing happen. One of the kids yelled and pointed in the sky and they saw the cessna hit the jet... then both went down. My bus driver was in the neighborhood (at our church) where the jet went down and he dove under the bus to save his life. The church had a huge gash on one wall where parts of the jet scraped the wall. They left it as a memorial. ❤

I witnessed this crash from the playground at my school where I was a 6th grader out for P.E. We watched in horror as we could clearly see what was happening. I had severe PTSD every time I heard a plane over our house! Fast forward 15 years later, I married a rookie San Diego police officer that worked with some of the old timers who were the police supervisors dispatched to the scene. They retell stories from that day that are just horrific! It was sheer carnage everywhere you looked! Parts of passengers in trees, on roof tops, backyards! Unfortunately some of these officers (most have since retired) were also ones that also responded to the McDonalds massacre that happened in San Diego in 1984, near the border (San Ysidro). Two horrific days in the history of San Diego, where I have been a native for 53 years.

My uncle Bobby (Robert Ramirez) was an employee of PSA on this flight. He was an operations instructor and this flight was his regular commute to work for the time being as he had plans to sell his home in the LA area and move to San Diego.. Families were contacted and 2 of my uncles arrived to identify what they could. It took a long time to identify anything. With the use of dental records, they found very little of his body. They also happened to find a chain he wore every day. For his funeral, there was very little to bury. Unfortunately this was the case for many of the victims. My family doesn’t talk about it much/at all. Thanks for covering this.

I was at boot camp San Diego and due to graduate when we all received the call to load up on buses headed to the crash site. Eager to help but young 20 year old scared at the possibility of “parts” I Began to PRAY for those who died. Filled with emotion I called my Mother and Father. To this day whatever I am doing I Pray very Sept 25th for those lost. RIP!

Those last words from one of the pilots " I love you Ma" still gets to me when I see pictures of the plane going down. So chilling.

Remember it well. The photo that you showed in the opening was from an original print that I made for the photographer who shot the image. He approached my school Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara to make a hush hush photo print for the papers and National Geographic. So we did. I have a 16x20 print myself from the original negative. Printing this image was surreal at the time, being in a darkroom, alone, thinking of these poor people and what they had to endure. So sad.

I knew David Bernard on this flight. Ironically, he was an attorney who specialized in aviation accidents. He was a wonderful guy, as was his wife and kids when I knew them back then.

I moved away from San Diego almost 15 years ago but this accident always had me looking for as much information as possible. You did a great job on explaining the details. I now live in TN and I tell you this place has historical markers EVERYWHERE. It's such a shame a memorial has not been erected yet. Today being the 45 year anniversary, it is time to honor those lost that day and the very much living loved ones who still miss them. ❤️‍🩹

I was at my parents house just south of the crash site and heard a loud boom. I walked outside, saw the black column of smoke, and immediately drove north up Boundary Street. Parked two blocks away (didn't know it was a plane crash yet) and walked up the sidewalk towards the smoke. I vividly remember walking pass a car parked on Boundary Street and noticed a body/torso that had crashed through the front windshield of a car and was partially in the front seat. I thought that was pretty weird, and they were clearly dead, but oddly enough I didn't associate that with the column of smoke I was heading towards. (Much later, they started covering body parts with yellow plastic and it was then that I noticed the yellow plastic on roofs, in yards, and in trees). It wasn't until I got to where the plane had impacted that I saw the tail of the plane sticking up with "PSA" on it that I finally realized it was a plane crash. I stayed there all day watching the police and fire do their job. There was a Coast Guard H53 helicopter circling in a tight circle over the site for hours. There was a staging site for ambulances (SDPD and Balboa Naval hospital) set up down an alley, but it quickly became apparent there weren't going to be any survivors. Eventually I got hungry and when home to eat. When I came back that night to observe some more, they had set up a perimeter about four blocks out from the crash site and wouldn't let anybody in. They brought in flood lights and the area was lit up like daytime at night for weeks.  As a footnote, observing that scene and the first responders working diligently under extreme heat during a terrible disaster had a profound impact on me. I later became a professional firefighter/paramedic and did that career for 30 years.

I was there. My year old daughter and I lived near the Savon on University. I was at work and my daughter was being babysat at home. Phones were down and Fedmart wouldn't let us leave for hours. I was frantic not knowing if my daughter was alive or not. The 3 things I remember when I got home was the smell of burning blood, the 'lookie-loos' stopping to ask where the crash was and the hand of a child holding a teddy bear...just the hand. I felt so badly for all those people. Horrifying, awful memory! I was terrified to fly after that.

I was a high school freshman in San Diego when this happened. It was a horrific day. A classmate lost her father on that flight. I don't think they were trying to land on the freeway--they were just trying to avoid hitting the ground, but had absolutely no control.