Just after 9 a.m.
A Boeing 727, PSA flight 182 with 135 people aboard, approaches Lindbergh Field.
Just after 9 a.m.
A single-engine Cessna 172, with a student pilot at the controls, has just completed a practice instrument landing approach at San Diego International Airport. The small plane is climbing, headed northeast.
9:01:28 a.m.
An alarm blares and an instrument panel blinks “CA” or "conflict alert" at Miramar Naval Air Station, signaling the flight paths of PSA 182 and the Cessna are entering a warning parameter.
9:01:47 a.m.
The descending jet hits the Cessna at an altitude of 2,600 feet over North Park.
9:02:04 a.m.
Its right wing damaged and on fire, the jet plummets to the ground. The last words are recorded at 9:02:04, 17 seconds after impact. Fragments of the Cessna hit the ground along Polk Avenue.
Sept. 24, 1978: “We’re hit, man, we are hit”
On a Monday morning 40 years ago, San Diego County suffered its worst air disaster – and the deadliest in-flight collision in U.S. history to that point. A PSA jet carrying 135 people hit a two-seater Cessna. Within minutes, 144 people would die: all 135 people aboard PSA Flight 182, both men in the Cessna and seven people on the ground in North Park.
Investigators look over engine debris from the PSA jet amid the rubble of charred houses. The photo was taken at the corner of Boundary and Dwight.
Photo: Thane McIntosh/Tribune
Joe Holly/Union
Sources: National Transportation Safety Board; Union-Tribune files; Mapzen; OpenStreetMap
CRISTINA BYVIK U-T
CLICK FOR INTERACTIVE MAP