Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182 And N7711G

Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) Flight 182 was a Boeing 727-214 commercial airliner, registration N533PS, that collided with a private Cessna 172 light aircraft, registration N7711G, over San Diego, California, at 9:01 am on Monday, September 25, 1978. It was Pacific Southwest Airlines's First fatal accident, and the deadliest air disaster in Californian history.

Both aircraft crashed into North Park, a San Diego neighborhood. Flight 182 impacted just north of the intersection of Dwight and Nile streets, killing all 135 people aboard the aircraft and seven people on the ground in houses, including two children. The Cessna impacted Polk Avenue between 32nd and Iowa streets, killing the two on board. Nine others on the ground were injured and twenty-two homes were destroyed or damaged by the impact and debris.

Accident
On the morning of September 25, 1978, Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182 departed Sacramento for San Diego via Los Angeles. The seven-person, San Diego-based crew consisted of Captain James E. McFeron (42); First Officer Robert E. Fox (38); Flight Engineer Martin J. Wahne (44); and four flight attendants. The flight from Sacramento to Los Angeles was uneventful. At 8:34 am, Flight 182 departed Los Angeles. First Officer Fox was the pilot flying. There were 128 passengers on board including 29 PSA employees. The weather in San Diego that morning was sunny and clear with 10 miles (16 km) of visibility.

At 8:59 am, the PSA crew was alerted by the approach controller about a small Cessna 172 Skyhawk aircraft nearby. The Cessna was being flown by two licensed pilots. One was Martin Kazy Jr., 32, who possessed single-engine, multiengine, and instrument flight ratings, as well as a commercial certificate and an instrument flight instructor certificate. He had flown a total of 5,137 hours. The other, David Boswell, 35, a U.S. Marine Corps sergeant, possessed single-engine and multiengine ratings and a commercial certificate. He had flown 407 hours at the time of the accident, and was practicing instrument landing system approaches under the instruction of Kazy in pursuit of his instrument rating. They had departed from Montgomery Field and were navigating under visual flight rules, which did not require the filing of a flight plan. Boswell was wearing a "hood" to limit his field of vision straight ahead to the cockpit panel, much like an oversized sun visor with vertical panels to block peripheral vision, which is normal in IFR training. At the time of the collision, the Cessna was on the missed approach (in visual meteorological conditions) from Lindbergh's Runway 9, heading east and climbing. The Cessna was in communication with San Diego approach control.