4 Decades Later: San Diego Remembers PSA Flight 182 Tragedy

On Sept. 25, 1978, PSA Flight 182 crashed midair with a single-engine Cessna over North Park, killing a total of 144 people

Tuesday marks four decades since the deadliest aircraft disaster in California’s history: the PSA Flight 182 crash over San Diego’s North Park community that killed 144 people.

To remember the lives tragically lost when PSA Flight 182 crashed midair with a single-engine Cessna over North Park on Sept. 25, 1978, city leaders, first responders and community members touched by the tragedy gather in North Park, as they do year after year.

[G] Victims of PSA Flight 182 Crash Remembered

The crash killed a total of 144 people, including all 135 people aboard PSA Flight 182, the two men aboard the Cessna and seven people on the ground. A total of 22 homes in the area were destroyed or damaged as the Boeing 727 hit the ground.

The wreckage came to rest near Boundary and Felton streets.

Sept. 25 marks 37 years since the PSA Flight 182 tragedy, when the passenger plane collided with another aircraft over San Diego’s North Park community. City leaders and those impacted by the crash will remember the 144 lives lost. NBC 7’s Candice Nguyen reports.

At the site on Tuesday, the name of each person who died in the crash and a personal message was inscribed on a sidewalk in chalk. A rose was placed next to each name as it is read aloud at the ceremony -- which started at 9:01 a.m., the exact time of the crash 40 years ago.

In 2014, residents involved in a PSA Flight 182 committee began a push for a permanent memorial to be erected at the site of the crash. Currently, the closest memorial is a plaque beneath a tree at the North Park library.

San Diegans are pushing for a new memorial in North Park to honor victims killed in the 1978 PSA Flight 182 disaster — the deadliest aircraft disaster to date in California’s history. NBC 7’s Omari Fleming reports.
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