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.
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.
