Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) Flight

Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) Flight 182 The mid-air collision between a Boeing 727 commercial airliner (the ill-fated Pacific Southwest Airlines flight 182) and a Cessna training aircraft over a San Diego neighborhood on September 25, 1978 remains one of the biggest air disasters in the U.S. aviation history to date. All 135 people on board the PSA flight including seven crewmembers, the two pilots in the Cessna and seven persons on the ground were killed in the crash.

The accident prompted an immediate review of the existing air-traffic control procedures around busy airports and led to greater mandatory use of radar for air traffic control instead of reliance on visual contact of other aircrafts by the pilots. In this paper about PSA flight 182 I shall trace the events leading up to the event, describe the accident, explore the possible causes of the accident, narrate some of the eye-witness accounts, and review its aftermath including the effect of the crash on the regulations on air-traffic control around busy airports.

The Chronology of Events Leading to the Accident At 0816 Pacific Standard Time (PST), September 25, 1978, a Gibbs Flite Center Cessna 172 departed Montgomery field, California on an instrument training flight. A flight instructor and another certified pilot who was receiving instrument flight training were the only two occupants of the aircraft. ("Aircraft Accident Report," 1979, p.2) The Cessna flew to Lindbergh Field where it practiced Instrument Landing System approaches on one of its runways. After completing a second practice approach, it began a climb-out to the northeast at about 0857 (PST).

At 0859:01 (PST), the Lindbergh tower control cleared the Cessna to maintain Visual Flight Rules (VFR) conditions and to contact San Diego approach control. The Cessna pilot did so immediately thereafter and the San Diego approach control acknowledged radar contact and instructed him to maintain VFR conditions at or below 3500 ft. And to fly a heading of 070 o. Pacific Southwest Airlines flight 182 was a regular commercial passenger flight operating between Sacramento and San Diego with a stopover in Los Angeles.

After its scheduled stopover in Los Angeles, the flight 182 departed at 0834 (PST) on an Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) plan with 128 passengers and 7 crewmembers on board. The aircraft was flown by the first officer, the captain conducted most of the air-to-ground communications, and a deadheading company pilot occupied the forward observer seat in the cockpit. Communication with San Diego Approach Controller & Lindbergh Tower At 0853 Flight 182 reported to San Diego approach control while flying at 11,000 ft. It was cleared to descent to 7000 ft.

At 0857, flight 182 informed that it was descending from 9500 to 7000 ft and the airport was in sight. Thereafter, the approach control cleared the aircraft for a visual approach to runway 27 and the pilot acknowledged the clearance.

At 0859: 28 the approach controller advised flight 182: "there was traffic at twelve o'clock, one mile northbound." The communication was acknowledged by the flight, five seconds later with "we're looking." At 0859:39, the approach controller informed flight 182, "additional traffic's twelve o'clock, three miles, just north of the field, northeast bound, a Cessna one seventy two climbing VFR out of one thousand four hundred." At 0859:50, the co-pilot responded with, "Okay we have got that other twelve." At 0900:15, the approach controller informed flight 182: "traffic's at twelve o'clock, three miles, out of one thousand seven hundred." The information was acknowledged by flight 182 a few second later through messages of "got em" and "traffic in sight." At 0900:23, the approach controller asked Flight 182 to "maintain visual separation," and to contact Lindbergh tower and Flight 182 acknowledged.

At 0900:31, the approach controller advised the Cessna pilot that there was "traffic at six o'clock, two miles, eastbound; a PSA jet inbound to Lindbergh, out of three thousand two hundred, has you in sight." The Cessna pilot acknowledged with: "One golf, roger." At 0900:34, Flight 182 contacted Lindbergh tower and informed that they were on the downwind leg for landing.

The tower acknowledged the transmission and informed Flight 182 that there was "traffic, twelve o'clock, one mile, a Cessna." Confusion in the Cockpit At 0900:41, the first officer who was at the controls of flight 182, called for 5" flaps, and the captain asked, "Is that the one (we're) looking at?" The first officer answered, "Yeah, but I don't see him now." The Flight 182's flight crew continued to discuss the location of the traffic, indicating considerable confusion in the cockpit.

For example, at 0900:44, Flight 182 told the local controller, "Okay, we had it there a minute ago," and at 0900:50: "think he's passing off to our right." At 0900:52, the captain said, "He was right over there a minute ago." The first officer answered, "Yeah." Then at 0901:11, after the captain told the local controller how far they were going to extend their downwind leg, the first officer asked, "Are we clear of that Cessna?" The flight engineer answered, "Supposed to be"; the captain said, "I guess"; and the pilot on the forward observer seat responded with, "I hope." This was followed by the Captain's observation at 0901:21, "Oh yeah, before we turned downwind, I saw him about one o'clock, probably behind us now" and the first officer calling out at 0901:38, "There's one underneath," and then, 1 sec later saying, "I was looking at that inbound there." This was the last recorded conversation from the cockpit of flight 182 before its actual impact with the Cessna.

The Accident The NTSB investigation report, referring to eyewitness accounts records that both aircraft were proceeding in an easterly direction before the collision. Flight 182 was descending and overtaking the Cessna, which was climbing. Just before impact, Flight 182 banked to the right slightly, and the Cessna pitched noseup and collided with the right wing of Flight 182.

("Aircraft Accident Report," 1979, p.4) Just before the impact, the captain, probably anticipating the collision exclaimed "Whoop!" And the first officer moaned "Aghhh!" The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) recorded the sound of impact at 0901:47 ("CVR Transcript..." n.d.). The Cessna broke up immediately on impact and exploded. Parts of the Boeing's right wing also fell out. Following the impact, Flight 182 began a shallow right descending turn leaving a trail of vaporlike substance from the right wing.

A bright orange fire also erupted in the vicinity of the right wing and increased in intensity as the aircraft descended. The aircraft remained in a right turn until its impact with the ground, which occurred at 0902: 07. Flight 182's CVR after the impact with the Cessna records the Captain asking "What have we got here?" And the first officer responding with "It's bad.

We're hit, man, we are hit!" It also records the Captain as remarking "This is it!" And "Brace yourself" and another crewmember exclaiming "Ma, I love you!" just before the aircraft hit the ground into a heavily populated residential area of San Diego ("CVR Transcript..." n.d.). Eyewitness Accounts The eyewitness accounts of the terrible crash reveal a story of indescribable horror.

The plane was split apart into millions of pieces on impact and its human cargo instantly disintegrated, flinging headless corpses and dismembered bodies into houses, onto rooftops, on lawns, and into the street. Walls were splattered with human remains. One body actually smashed through a car's windshield, killing a mother and her daughter inside the car.

(Stich 178) Several eyewitnesses such as radio executive Joe Gillespie recalled 20 years after the crash: "I remember that day as if it happened yesterday." (Shess 1998) Another eyewitness, Gary Jaus, a rookie cop at San Diego Police Academy at the time, who was assigned the task of combing through the wreckage for I.Ds of the victims recalled: "There were no faces on the bodies. There were no bodies to speak of -- only pieces.

One alley was filled with just arms, legs and feet..." And noted that he was only able to do his gory duty that day without getting sick because he had worked at a mortuary before becoming a cop.

Even he, despite being no stranger to dead bodies, in his own words: "wasn't ready to see the torso of a stewardess slammed against a car" (Ibid.) Robert Osby, then a battalion chief with the San Diego Fire Department, and later the fire chief, who supervised the rescue efforts at the disaster site recalls that the firefighters due to their prompt and professional efforts were able to contain the fire from spreading beyond a remarkably small area -- only two sides of one short block of Dwight Street.

He also thanks God that the plane had crashed into a working-class neighborhood on a Monday morning when most of the residents of the destroyed homes were at work; otherwise the death toll on the ground would have been much higher (Ibid.) Another reason why the fireball from the fallen aircraft was contained in a smaller area was because the plane did not fall in a parallel-to-the-ground glide path but crashed nose first.

Hans Wendt, a staff photographer with the San Diego County's public relations office, who was covering an outdoor press event in North Park at the time of the accident, took two dramatic post collision still color photographs of the falling Boeing-727 trailing blue-and-white smoke streaking from its right wing while plunging towards the ground. They appeared in several publications around the world including the cover of Time magazine. Another television cameraman, covering the same event in North Park, also managed to capture footage of the falling Cessna wreckage.

Cause of the Crash Probable Cause: According to the official majority findings of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the probable cause of the accident was: the failure of the flightcrew of Flight 182 to comply with the provisions of a maintain-visual-separation clearance, including the requirement to inform the controller when they no longer had the other aircraft in sight. ("Aircraft Accident Report," 1979, p.36) Contributory Cause: The NTSB report also cited the air traffic control procedure as a contributory cause to the accident.

Specifically, the procedure which "authorized the controllers to use visual separation procedures to separate two aircraft on potentially conflicting tracks when the capability was available to provide either lateral or vertical radar separation to either aircraft." (Ibid.) The opinion of the NTSB was based on a detailed analysis of the qualifications and experience of the pilots of the two aircrafts, the existing condition of the Boeing-727 and Cessna-172 aircrafts at the time of the accident, the weather conditions in the vicinity of the Lindbergh airfield, cockpit visibility study, the CVR transcript, air traffic control procedures, examination of the wreckage, and a host of eyewitness accounts.

Personnel Qualifications, Aircrafts and Weather Conditions: All flight crew personnel on both the aircrafts including the pilots abroad the Cessna were qualified. The personnel in the San Diego approach control and the Lindbergh tower were also adequately qualified and experienced. The aircraft used on Flight 182 (a Boeing 727-214, N533PS), was owned and operated by Pacific Southwest Airlines, Inc. was within prescribed weight and balance limitations for the flight.

The Cessna 172M, N77llG, owned and operated by Gibbs Flite Center, Inc., was similarly within prescribed weight and balance limits for the flight. The Weather conditions in and around San Diego at the time of the accident were clear and the visibility was considered as good for 10 miles. ("Aircraft Accident Report," 1979, p. 5-6) Hence, it was concluded by the NTSB that none of these factors contributed in any way to the accident.

Dissenting Opinion: One of the members of the NTSB disagreed with the findings of the majority regarding the probable and contributory causes of the accident and recorded his dissent in the Aircraft Accident Report. According to his dissenting opinion, the inadequacies of the air traffic control system should have been cited as a "probable cause" rather than a "contributory cause" of the accident.

In support of his contention, the dissenting member argued that the San Diego approach control had the capability of providing either vertical or lateral separation and should have used the procedure for the control of both aircraft. Had such a procedure been used, the accident would not have occurred; hence, in the opinion of the dissenting member, the failure by the aircraft traffic control to do so was a direct and probable cause, rather than an indirect and contributory cause of the accident. (Ibid.

39) Moreover, the dissenting member also cited a number of factors that, in his opinion, were contributory. For example, he argued that the approach controller failed to restrict Flight 182 to a 4,000-foot altitude while it was within the Montgomery filed area; if such altitude restriction had been issued, the accident would possibly not have occurred.

He also cited the failure of the Cessna to maintain the assigned heading of 070o, the fact that two separate facilities were controlling traffic in the same airspace, the failure of the San Diego Approach Control to react to the conflict alert warning, the possible misidentification of the Cessna by PSA 182 due to the presence of a third unknown aircraft in the area, and the failure of the controller to advise PSA 182 of the direction of movement of the Cessna as additional contributory factors. (Ibid.

40-41) All of these points were also noted by the majority in the NTSB report but were briefly stated in the conclusions rather than being cited as contributory factors.

Alternative Viewpoint About the Cause of the Accident Rodney Stich in his book Unfriendly Skies cites another cause for the accident, which appears nowhere in the NTSB report; the allegation that the flight-crew of flight 182 was hung-over from a late night party at Sacramento and was dead-tired as most of them had no more than two hours of sleep before the initial leg of flight 182 left Sacramento for Los Angeles at 7 am on the fateful day.

He bases his argument on the testimony of Helen Rhea from Los Angeles, who was a passenger on flight 182 from Sacramento and had disembarked at Los Angeles. Helen later recalled her conversation with a flight attendant, Debbie McCarthy, during the flight to Los Angeles who had disclosed that she had been at a party in one of the crew motel rooms at the Sacramento Airport from eleven p.m. until 5 a.m. And the entire crew had been there.

Large quantities of whisky were allegedly consumed at the party and Debbie herself had confessed to being "very tired" and had remarked: "All of the crew is really hung over." (Stich 2005, p. 175). The fact about the party and the tiredness of the crew is further corroborated by the CVR recording of Flight 182, before leaving the terminal at Los Angeles, when a female flight attendant asks the captain, "Tired, are you?" And the captain responds, "I'm dragging. It was a short night." (Quoted by Stich, 2005, p.

176) Stich also alleges in his book that the American pilot's union (ALPA), who knew of the partying, obstructed disclosure of the evidence about crew fatigue and the press distorted and suppressed the real facts in order to protect their valuable airline advertisers -- unfairly diverting blame for the accident towards the pilots of the Cessna who were incorrectly reported as being "student pilots." (Ibid.

179) Stich goes on to suggest that the NTSB itself was involved in the cover-up as it carefully omitted the sections in the CVR, which reflected absence of sleep and the tiredness of the crew. How The Accident Affected Regulations on Air-traffic Control.