30 years ago today: PSA 182

[transitfan]

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19780925-0

I was living in Los Angeles on 9/25/78, so this accident got a lot of coverage, probably because the ill-fated segment originated at LAX, or maybe because San Diego is so close to L. A. PSA 182 was the most prominent of a series of tragic events in a 7-day period beginning on 9/23/78, when California Angels outfielder Lyman Bostock was shot and killed in Gary, IN following a game with the Chicago White Sox, and ended with the unexpected death of Pope John Paul I, after less than a month in the papacy. Also, this entire time, L. A. (and San Diego to a lesser extent) was in the throes of a heat wave, with temperatures at 100+ for the better part of a week (the day of the crash, it was 110 degrees in L. A. (and in the upper 90s in San Diego, which hampered firefighters in putting out the fires on the ground when PSA 182 crashed)). RIP to those lost on PSA 182, the Cessna, and those that were lost on the ground.

[Crunk415balla]

Very, very horrible event. I get scared everytime I see those pictures, mid air collisions are in the back of my mind everytime I fly.

RIP and my condolences to the families that have to live with the loss to this day.

[Airbus_A320]

Very, very horrible event. I get scared everytime I see those pictures, mid air collisions are in the back of my mind everytime I fly.

RIP and my condolences to the families that have to live with the loss to this day.

Yeah, especially when there are like 5 planes on the TIS display and you can't see a single one of them even though they are supposed to be right in front of you at almost the same altitude, or when you are doing practice approaches and some asshole is flying VFR circling over a VOR at 3,000ft

[bob12312357]

Very, very horrible event. I get scared everytime I see those pictures, mid air collisions are in the back of my mind everytime I fly.

RIP and my condolences to the families that have to live with the loss to this day.

That is precisely why I am worried about being worried about getting trampled to death by a rabid donkey every time I cross the street. Happens less then a dozen times a year with fatalities, but the chance of that pissed off donkey is just somethin i'm not willin to take. SO far so good.

There was actaully a vid on youtube for a bit of raw footage, a body came outta the plane with enough force to go through the siding of a house and you saw the bloody hole wth the homeowner shrieking to the camera dude. Body parts scattered about for blocks, pieces of wreckage hundreds of yards apart, a few full bodies. If you've never seen a real plane crash aftermath you'd be pretty shocked. Intresting vid actaully.

[JordanD]

That is precisely why I am worried about being worried about getting trampled to death by a rabid donkey every time I cross the street. Happens less then a dozen times a year with fatalities, but the chance of that pissed off donkey is just somethin i'm not willin to take. SO far so good.

Oh yes, I'd much rather fly with someone who is not worried about midair collisions at all. Why would I care if they maintain a vigilant scan for other traffic? I would hope he scans for airborne donkeys instead.

[bob12312357]

Oh yes, I'd much rather fly with someone who is not worried about midair collisions at all. Why would I care if they maintain a vigilant scan for other traffic? I would hope he scans for airborne donkeys instead.

I scan constantly, hell even in Class B airspace I've had traffic that wasn't suppose to be there be in the vicinity of my flight path. DO I worry about a mid-air. Absolutely not, a good scan and the odds of 2 planes occupying the same spot, at the same time is just 2 slim for me to be apprehensive about.

[Crunk415balla]

I scan constantly, hell even in Class B airspace I've had traffic that wasn't suppose to be there be in the vicinity of my flight path. DO I worry about a mid-air. Absolutely not, a good scan and the odds of 2 planes occupying the same spot, at the same time is just 2 slim for me to be apprehensive about.

Yeah, you keep saying that. I've had 3 near misses so far, 2 of them came at us from the blind spot and we never saw them until they shot past us, and another ATC directed right at us while we were flight following then issued the traffic alert over and over to the wrong aircraft. But you go on and keep feeling invincible, thinking that as long as you do your scan, you'll never hit anything, Superman.

Big sky theroy my ass when you have as many busy airports so close togeather as we do in the Bay Area or in other places like the NYC area.

[Airbus_A320]

Yeah, you keep saying that. I've had 3 near misses so far, 2 of them came at us from the blind spot and we never saw them until they shot past us, and another ATC directed right at us while we were flight following then issued the traffic alert over and over to the wrong aircraft. But you go on and keep feeling invincible, thinking that as long as you do your scan, you'll never hit anything, Superman.

Big sky theroy my ass when you have as many busy airports so close togeather as we do in the Bay Area or in other places like the NYC area.

Yeah, last weekend I was flying with another pilot friend outside of the class B north of NYC and saw a target on TIS, he was flying the plane, i was looking for traffic and messing with GPS. It looked like it was coming right at us at the same altitude, but I couldn't see it, then when it seemed it that it was abeam our position I looked sideways, and there was the plane coming right at us, at which point I pointed it out to him and pulled the power off and we went down. Not really a "near" miss, but still we still got close at the same altitude, and I saw it necessary for us to descend or it seemed like we would have gotten quite close. Not good when you have traffic that's supposed to be right in front of you that you can't see, and a bunch of other targets not too far away that you can't see either.

[Crunk415balla]

I'd just like to say I sure hope the sky isn't full of pilots who really think they have as much chance of colliding with an aircraft even in congested airspace as they do of being trampled to death by a rabid donkey.

Now THAT would be scary.

[Deadstick]

I was working on the fourth floor of a downtown building when the 727 impacted the ground. We thought we were having an earthquake. Unfortuneately, were that it was so.

[Carl E. Hackert]

PSA's lesson: the "big sky" shrinks

The saddest part is that even today's most experienced, best equipped professionals still experience accidents similar to PSA's.

An example of a "big sky" failure is the 2002 midair below... ask yourself who or what was in control and making the most basic aviation decisions: altitude, heading, speed:
YouTube - Plane Crash - Mid-Air Collision DHL 757 and Tu-154


That "big sky" shrinks not only with increased closing speeds of high altitude jets and when operating in foreign environments where timely ATC communications can fail, but it shrinks at slower speeds as one gets nearer to an arrival (or upon departure from) for a major airport or its satellite airports.

Is there a technological solution which is 100% foolproof? Not yet and most GA aircraft can't afford it. So, the best mid-air prevention: vigilance, preparation, timely and proper operation & maintenance of your aircraft's electronic equipment, clear & succinct ATC communication, and accurate flying & position reporting employing approved & standardized arrivals and departures.

If you're GA pilot, don't be the guy in the Barron who flies a 15 mile straight-in originating from behind a ridge-line, 1200 on the transponder and who makes no radio calls at an uncontrolled field. Make sure that you tell your passengers to be quiet so you can listen, get a mental picture of the airport area, ask for position reports if you're not sure whet the other guys are up to at non-towered airports, your radios are on the correct frequency, your altimeter & gyro are set correctly, you report in correctly the first time and the headset or receiver's volume are turned up...

Some day, we'll have affordable collision avoidance equipment for all aircraft integrating data such as your transponder info, GPS, XM satellite broadcasts, onboard-radar and local ATC radar/transponder info. Even then, there will always be a chance of a human error or an equipment failure gone undetected.

[Airbus_A320]

Unfortunately in that accident the pilots of TU-154 kept listening to the controller who was controlling two different sectors with half-assed equipment because part of the system was off line for maintenance. The TCAS was telling them to climb (while the TCAS of the 757 was telling those pilots to descend) and the controller telling them was telling them to descend. If they had listened to the TCAS the collision wouldn't have happened. Later on in that episode it goes into a bunch of stuff about the chain of events and training differences that could have contributed to the accident. Overall a sad story, everything was there to prevent a collision but the wrong set of circumstances came together at just the right time to cause it.

[safitz606]

I was on PSA182 originating in Sacramento, Ca

[QUOTE=transitfan;489457]http://aviation-safety.net/database/...?id=19780925-0

I had a through flight to San Diego. I boarded and sat in seat 23 (window) on the left side of the aircraft. I almost immediately felt pain in my back and changed seats three times in search of a more comfortable one. By the time we reached LA I had an overwhelming sense of dread. Being my last official flight for the State of California (Infectious Disease Division) I decided to get off in LA and get a State Car and drive to San Diego. While on my trip south I stopped in Downy, CA to visit a related program and was invited to attend their staff meeting. Five minutes into the meeting the secretary burst into the meeting stating: Terrible news. Mr Fitzgerald was just killed in a plane crash in San Diego. That was my first indication that the PSA flight 182 had crashed and that I had missed death because of a backache. For brevity I shall skip all of the thoughts that went through my mind that day but, suffice it to say, it wasn't my time to die.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/...?id=19780925-0

I was living in Los Angeles on 9/25/78, so this accident got a lot of coverage, probably because the ill-fated segment originated at LAX, or maybe because San Diego is so close to L. A. PSA 182 was the most prominent of a series of tragic events in a 7-day period beginning on 9/23/78, when California Angels outfielder Lyman Bostock was shot and killed in Gary, IN following a game with the Chicago White Sox, and ended with the unexpected death of Pope John Paul I, after less than a month in the papacy. Also, this entire time, L. A. (and San Diego to a lesser extent) was in the throes of a heat wave, with temperatures at 100+ for the better part of a week (the day of the crash, it was 110 degrees in L. A. (and in the upper 90s in San Diego, which hampered firefighters in putting out the fires on the ground when PSA 182 crashed)). RIP to those lost on PSA 182, the Cessna, and those that were lost on the ground.