PSA Boeing 727 Flight 182 NTSB Midair Crash Investigation Report Facts And Findings - ATC And CVR

http://AviationExplorer.com - Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) Flight 182, registration N533PS, was a Boeing 727-214 commercial airliner that collided with a private Cessna 172 over San Diego, California on September 25, 1978. Pacific Southwest Airlines' first accident involving fatalities, the death toll of 144 makes it the deadliest aircraft disaster in California history. It was also the deadliest plane crash in the history of the United States until American Airlines Flight 191 went down eight months later.

The Boeing and Cessna crashed into North Park, a San Diego neighborhood, killing all 135 on board, the two men aboard the Cessna, and seven people on the ground, including two children. Nine others on the ground were injured and 22 homes were destroyed or damaged.

The midair collision contributed to San Diego's Lindbergh Field airport being ranked 10th among the world's Most Extreme Airports. The PSA 182 accident caused the revision of air traffic rules applicable to the busiest airports across the U.S., with the intention of improving separation of aircraft operating in the vicinity of large airports.

The National Transportation Safety Board report determined that the probable cause of the accident was the failure of the PSA flight crew to follow proper air traffic control (ATC) procedures. Flight 182's crew lost sight of the Cessna in contravention of the ATC's instructions to "keep visual separation from that traffic", and did not alert ATC that they had lost sight of it. Errors on the part of ATC were also named as contributing factors, including the use of visual separation procedures when radar clearances were available. Additionally the Cessna pilots, for reasons unknown, did not maintain their assigned east-northeasterly heading of 070 degrees after completing a practice instrument approach, nor did they notify ATC of their course change. Concerning this the NTSB report states, According to the testimony of the controllers and the assistant chief flight instructor of the Gibbs Flite Center (owner of the Cessna), the 0859:56 transmission from approach control to the Cessna only imposed an altitude limitation on the pilot, he was not required to maintain the 070° heading. However, the assistant chief flight instructor testified that he would expect the Cessna pilot to fly the assigned heading or inform the controller that he was not able to do so.

A dissenting opinion in the NTSB crash report by member Francis H. McAdams strongly questioned why the unauthorized change in course by the Cessna was not specifically cited as a "contributing factor" in the final report; instead, it was listed as simply a "finding", which carries less weight. McAdams also "sharply disagreed" with the majority of the panel on other issues, giving more weight to inadequate ATC procedures as another "probable cause" to the accident, rather than merely treating them as a contributing factor. McAdams also added the "possible misidentification of the Cessna by the PSA aircrew due to the presence of a third unknown aircraft in the area" as a contributing factor. The majority panel members did not cite this as a credible possibility. In an August 1982 amendment to the probable cause finding, the NTSB adopted McAdams' viewpoints regarding both ATC and pilot failings.

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[Eyerapechildren]

@fleetwin1 I think god has done enough.

[MadNotAngry]

I was there. Just graduated Hospital Corps School at Naval Regional Medical Center SD that very morning. They announced the crash had just happened and wanted volunteers to go assist local authorities in the rescue efforts. A bus load of us showed up, all in our gleaming dress whites. They didn't stay white. It was my first experience as a corpsman, and a third of a century later, it remains the most horrific.

[OLiVIEIRR]

@EquipaPatriot You probably haven't ATC controls the airspace with extreme caution and thought. Crashes like this are insanely rare now due to all the equipment avoidance systems etc, it's rare for any errors.

[LeahAct]

:( What a horrible death. RIP

[EquipaPatriot]

:-( that's too bad. I've come close to a few mid-air collisions while flying over California.

[ChorltonBrook]

Is there film of the falling Cessna on the net?

[MrSquareart]

Very very sad and WOW!!!!!!!!

[fleetwin1]

God bless them all....