All language subtitles for Air.Disasters.S03E01.Blind.Spot.1080p.PMTP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-maldini_track3_[eng]

September 1978.

A Boeing 727 is headed
for the ground.

Easy, baby, easy.

Mom, I love ya.

San Diego
becomes the site

of the worst aviation disaster
in U.S. History.

My hair stood up
on the back of my head

when I learned that
this crash had occurred.

Oh, my word.

The accident scene
was horrendous.

How am I gonna put
this puzzle together

was a real big concern of mine.

Evidence leads investigators

to a remarkable conclusion.

Oh, yeah. Before
we turned downwind, I saw him...

Hold on.

A horrendous accident
may have been caused...

Oh, yeah.

Before we turned downwind,
I saw him about one o'clock.

...by a single
misheard syllable.

Ladies and gentlemen,

we are starting our approach.

We lost both engines!

Put the mask over your nose.

Emergency descent.

Mayday, mayday.

Brace for impact!

I think I lost one.

Investigation starting...

He's gonna crash!

Pacific southwest
airlines flight 182

is on an early morning run down
the coast of California

from Sacramento to San Diego.

First officer Bob Fox
is at the controls.

Approach, PSA 182,
coming out of 9-5,

descending to 7,000.

Airport is in sight.

A nine-year veteran
with PSA,

he's on track to
become a captain.

Captain Jim Mcferon has been
with the airline for 17 years.

Known as a born pilot,

he is highly regarded
by his colleagues.

This is the second flight
of the day for both men.

PSA 182 is cleared
visual approach, runway 2-7.

Thank you.
Cleared visual approach, 2-7.

Among the 128 passengers,

there are 30 pacific southwest
employees.

Many are heading back to
the company's home base

in San Diego.

PSA was
an excellent airline.

They had a super maintenance
record, super safety record.

They were recognized
in the industry as,

wow, these guys are good.

Pilots are cautious
when arriving at San Diego.

Lindbergh airfield is the
busiest single-runway airport

in North America.

San Diego
Lindbergh airport

is a challenging place
to fly into

because of its proximity
to downtown

and also some of
the obstructions around it.

There's a very
drastic terrain drop.

Pilots do it all the time,

and some of them don't like
to talk about it,

but it's a little scary.

There was always concern that,

wow, someday, you know,
there could be a major crash.

Several other
airports nearby are abuzz

with commercial, military
and private planes.

The airspace around
San Diego international

is quite busy because of the
600 flights a day, in and out.

So there are planes taking off
and landing constantly.

Flight 182 will
have to thread its way

through all this traffic
while passing over the city,

preparing to land on runway 2-7.

Martin Wayne is at
the engineer's console.

As they approach the airport,

he contacts
the company's head office.

We're out of Los Angeles,
San Diego at 0905.

PSA 182, roger.

A little late,
but thank you.

I just called my off report.
The guy started laughing.

Make it up by
reporting our next takeoff now.

Very nice.

Even though
they were fun and laid-back,

they were still
highly professional.

The crews were just personable.

You felt like they wanted you
to be on their airplanes.

It was great.

"Catch our smile"
was their motto.

It was an experience.

It was fun.

Flight 182's approach
to Lindbergh field

is being handled by
an approach controller

at a facility nine miles
north of the airport.

The approach
control facility is quite busy,

and that's stressful,
because you're handling

so many different airplanes
in the same airspace.

When the controller
spots a Cessna

flying ahead of flight 182,

he makes sure
that they can see it.

PSA 182, traffic's at 12
o'clock, three miles out, 1,700.

Got it.

Traffic in sight.

They were issued traffic.

They acknowledged sight
of the traffic.

Okay, sir.

Maintain visual separation.

Contact Lindbergh tower, 133.3.

Have a nice day.

Okay.

Visual separation
means that the pilot

has another aircraft in sight
and acknowledges it.

Got it.

Once the visual approach
is accepted by the pilot,

he's then responsible for
maintaining separation

from that traffic.

It's somewhat like
two boats passing.

It's the responsibility
of the overtaking boat

to maintain separation visually.

As it approaches the airport,

flight 182 banks left

so that it's flying
parallel to the runway,

ready to turn and land
when given permission.

I would characterize this
as wonderfully routine.

There wasn't anything out of
the ordinary with this flight.

With the plane now
less than five miles

from the runway,

a controller in
the airport's tower takes over

to guide the flight in
for landing.

Lindbergh ,
PSA 182, downwind.

182, roger.

Within the airport
traffic area,

which is that five mile radius,

the airplanes coming into
the airport to land and takeoff

are controlled
by that controller.

The tower controller
is juggling several planes

in addition to the PSA 727.

PSA 182, traffic
12 o'clock, one mile, a Cessna.

Because there's only
one runway at Lindbergh ,

it requires some
air traffic control spacing

because of the difference
in the speeds of the aircraft.

PSA 182,
cleared to land.

182 is cleared to land.

The jet's quite
a significantly faster

approach speed than the Cessna,

so you have to give them
more spacing.

It's now 9:00 a.m.

Many passengers on flight 182
are planning

to put in a full day's work
in San Diego.

Gear down.

Minutes from landing,

pilot Bob Fox spots
a distant plane.

There's one underneath.

I was looking at that
inbound over there.

Easy, baby, easy, baby.

A professional
photographer

happens to spot flight 182
in flames.

What have we got here?

-It's bad.
- Huh?

We're hit, man,
we're hit.

Tower, we're going down.

This is PSA.

Okay.

We'll call the equipment
for you.

The approach
controller's radar reveals

that the 727 has collided
with the Cessna.

Jesus Christ.

It's an aluminum shower.

To have two aircraft
under your control collide

is the worst nightmare, I think,
for any controller.

I don't think anything else
could be that bad.

This is it, baby.

Brace yourself.

Mom, I love ya.

All of a sudden,
it just went right in,

just a burst of flames.

It was just incredible.

It's burning up.

We can't do anything about it.
Come on, let's go.

My hair stood up
on the back of my head

when I learned that
this crash had occurred.

This huge mushroom cloud
of smoke and fire

was seen by thousands of people.

Two planes have
collided and fallen from the sky

over San Diego.

The city is in shock.

But the full scope
of the tragedy

is only beginning to emerge.

Hundreds of people
watched in horror

as the two planes
collided and crashed

into a quiet San Diego
residential neighborhood .

This is
the biggest disaster

that's ever happened
in San Diego county.

One witness reported
seeing falling bodies hit a car.

Two bodies were
bounced out of the PSA.

One hit through the windshield,
killed the mother.

The other one hit on the side

and killed
her four-month-old baby.

Police officers
covered up the bodies,

and that's about
all they could do.

It's feared that
everyone on board the two planes

is dead.

The PSA plane landed
at Dwight and Nile streets.

The Cessna landed
about six blocks away

in front of a house,
near 32nd and Polk.

22 homes are destroyed.

Seven residents are killed.

Nine more are injured.

The city feels overwhelmed.

We heard it
on the news,

so we came down here to see what
we could do to help.

We've been walking through here
carrying water,

and it's just such a bad scene.

It's really horrible.

Greg Clark is
a San Diego police officer

who rushes to the scene to help
search for survivors.

For me, it looked
like a large bomb had gone off.

Everything that was in
the path of the aircraft,

just completely destroyed.

There were passenger seats
stuck in the side of houses

and pieces of fuselage
just, just everywhere.

I found nobody
that was in one piece.

Two hours
after the crash,

NTSB investigator Wally Funk
arrives from Los Angeles.

Since I was
the lead investigator

for that particular day,

I got the call from
the FAA duty officer,

and he informed me that there
had been a midair collision

in San Diego.

Oh, my word.

The accident scene
was horrendous.

First, the San Diego police
department escorted me in

and introduced me
to the fire marshal,

'cause they had control
of the entire wreckage.

Any survivors yet?

That was just
chilling that you suddenly,

you realized there's,
there are no survivors.

The medical personnel
were frustrated,

because everybody came
to the realization

that there was nothing
that they could do.

144 people are dead,

including the seven
on the ground.

It's the biggest airline
disaster in American history.

It was entirely something
that I had not expected.

There was so many bits and parts
and pieces around,

not only the aircraft,
but the homes.

I just started by
photographing...

...and writing notes.

A real big concern of mine was

how am I gonna put
this puzzle together?

Funk needs
to confirm that

the wreckage of a small plane
found six blocks away

is in fact what collided
with the 727.

There's no doubt about it.

We had paint transfers.

We had pieces and parts from
the two different aircraft.

Yes, this was an absolute
midair collision.

There's no doubt about it.

But there's a much
larger question looming...

How could such
an accident happen?

We had to visualize from
a very mangled mess of metal

where the two came together.

I really felt compelled to bring
the Cessna wreckage

over to the main wreckage.

Put that down right there,
please.

So we could kind of understand
really what had happened.

Eventually,
the wreckage of the two planes

is sent to a hangar
for reconstruction.

It's just a big puzzle.

You have to try one piece
at a time putting it together.

Funk records as many
witness interviews as possible

while memories are still fresh.

But I find in
all my investigations

that children up to 17, 18
years old are my best witnesses,

because a youngster will give me
a really good interpretation

of what they saw, not what
they thought they heard,

or what they thought they saw.

There were quite a few
people that described

what they saw
falling out of the sky.

Can you tell me exactly
what you saw when you looked up?

But all the
interviews are disappointing.

So you didn't see
the actual collision?

We had nobody that really saw
the whole thing happen.

They only saw it after the bang.

The closest thing to
a sighting of the collision

is a television crew's footage
of the Cessna

plummeting to the ground.

The NTSB sends additional staff
from Washington,

including senior investigator
Philip Hogue.

Let's get right
down to it, all right?

I know that you've done
a heck of a lot of research,

and you've been mainly
concentrating

on the larger aircraft.

But it was great
to see the guys

when they finally got there .

The technical support
was wonderful.

We kind of divvied up
the duties.

So I will tackle the Cessna.

Needing to know more
about the smaller plane,

they review its records
for the day.

The Cessna belonged to
a flight training school.

A student pilot was
having a lesson.

We had a flight instructor
sitting on the right side,

and we had a student pilot

learning to get
his instrument rating.

Investigators learn
that the student pilot

approached runway nine twice,

practicing landing using
only his instruments.

Instrument pilots
need more the practice

of approaching the runways
as opposed to the landings.

Local media
jump to a conclusion.

There were a lot
of people who thought

that the crash had to be
the fault of that Cessna,

because they had a...
It had a student pilot.

There can be
a built-in bias

in the traveling public's mind
and the media's mind

that airliners should have
priority in and out of airports,

and this is not the way
that it works.

It's a first come,
first serve system.

However, with a jetliner
on an assigned glide path

coming into a major airport,

people wanted to know how come
that little airplane

was up there in the way.

Hopefully,
the black boxes

salvaged from the crash site

will help answer this question.

One was up front,
which was the voice recorder,

and one was in
the aft stairwell,

which was
the instrument recorder.

They were flown back
to Washington, D.C.

Figuring out what was said
in the cockpit

and what the instruments said
takes a lot of time.

In the meantime,

investigators interview
the first of the two controllers

who were guiding the planes.

Can you show us
the two flight paths?

The approach controller

remembers the planned routes
of the two planes,

but he can't be sure what routes
they actually flew,

because approach radar
is not recorded.

So the 727 was
flying east to do a turnaround

and land on runway 27.

And the Cessna was
flying northeast,

but it was miles
ahead of the 727,

probably headed home
after doing touch-and-gos

on runway nine.

They should have missed
each other by over a mile.

Since I had been into Lindbergh
several times as a pilot,

it occurred to me...were they on
the right headings, altitudes?

Learning
the exact flight paths

will require
complex calculations

that include data from an air
traffic station in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, a transcript of
the controller's conversation

with both planes reveals

the pilots were aware of
each other's positions.

So the PSA crew
reported seeing the Cessna

when they were still
three miles apart.

The planes would have been
somewhere around here...

...and here.

Got it.

Traffic in sight.

The Cessna pilot
was also made aware

of the 727 behind them.

Traffic at
6 o'clock, two miles eastbound.

A PSA jet inbound to Lindbergh
out of 3,200 has you in sight.

Investigators
want to know,

if the pilots of both planes
knew of each other,

why did their aircraft collide?

New radar equipment installed
just one month earlier

was designed to prevent exactly
this type of incident.

The collision alert
system was instituted

to prevent collisions,
to alert controllers to the fact

that there was an imminent
collision between two aircraft.

Didn't you get
any warning?

We did.

We ignored it.

Explain.

Well, when the alert sounded,

I mentioned it
to my supervisor.

It's the alarm again.
I talked to both planes.

PSA 182's confirmed
a visual sighting of the Cessna.

We're not expected to
contact the pilots

if they're flying
by visual rules,

not to mention we get
about 13 alarms a day, so.

He went to his advisor
and told him what he had,

but since they had had
so many false ones,

they really just kind of
disregarded it.

The controllers
decide not to act on the alert,

but they still
contact the Cessna

and repeat an earlier message.

Traffic in your vicinity.

PSA jet has you in sight.

He's descending for Lindbergh .

You could almost call it
a courtesy call

by the approach controller
to the Cessna.

But at that exact
moment, the planes collide.

I feel they should have...

... watched these two aircraft

a little closer.

I think they were rather
cavalier about it.

Investigators interview

the Lindbergh tower controller,

trying to understand why he also
failed to warn both planes

about their impending collision.

They discover that
to monitor traffic,

he relied on a less
sophisticated form of radar.

The tower controller
did not have

the collision alert system
at the time.

When the controller
saw the planes

within a half mile
of each other,

he made contact,
warning the 727.

PSA 182, traffic
12 o'clock, one mile, a Cessna.

I think he's passing
off to our right.

Yeah.

If the pilot says,
"he's passing off to our right",

this implies that he's still
maintaining visual separation.

It was his responsibility, and
you would not worry about it.

After talking
to both controllers,

investigators still have
no answer to the key question

in the midair collision...

Who crashed into whom?

Now let's have
the next acetate, please,

and see where that takes us.

When they finally calculate

the two planes'
actual radar tracks,

the answer becomes clear.

This is where the 727
has rear-ended the Cessna.

The Cessna never passed
off to the right.

He was always in front of PSA.

The 100-ton aircraft

flying at almost
186 miles per hour

simply tore apart the much
slower and lighter Cessna.

See,
we had plotted down,

this is the third position...

The radar track reveals

another important detail.

Just before the impact,

the Cessna turned right
into the 727's path.

Why the change
in heading?

The trajectories of
the two airplanes are such

that had the Cessna not drifted,

the airplanes would not
have collided.

Close examination of
the Cessna's training flight log

reveals one possible reason
for the change in direction.

He was wearing
a training hood.

The Cessna pilot
wore a training hood.

It's a device worn during
instrument flight training.

A pilot undergoing
training

for an instrument rating

must learn to fly with exclusive
reference to the instruments.

So on good weather days,

there has to be some means
to block the natural horizon,

the outside.

And it was a black hood

that came out about
this far from his face

so that he couldn't see outside.

Funk wonders if
the hood could have caused him

to go off course
at the worst possible time.

The Cessna was told to stay on
a 70-degree heading.

Cessna 7711 golf,

San Diego departure,
fly heading 070.

Pilots are taught
to scan their instruments

to maintain their heading.

On occasion you'll see
headings that will drift

because a learning pilot
doesn't have the heading

in that scan fast enough.

But even if the hood
did play a role

in causing the Cessna
to drift...

That does not explain
why the PSA crew

couldn't see the Cessna.

Got it.

Traffic in sight.

How did
the veteran crew of a 727

lose sight of a plane flying
directly in front of it?

Investigators now realize that
they may never find out why

the pilot of a Cessna
changed its heading,

putting it on the same
flight path as a 727.

Why the Cessna pilot did not
stay on his assigned heading,

I can't answer that question.

But it's important
to know that

that drift of that heading
wasn't so severe

that the air traffic controller
called him

and said, "what's your
heading?".

So, clearly, they did turn
according to the radar,

but the significance of it
is a bit more questionable.

What's not in
question

is that it was the
responsibility of the 727's crew

to avoid the Cessna.

The PSA crew,
when they acknowledged

they had the Cessna in sight,

at that moment
became responsible

for keeping
the airplanes separate.

In Washington,

investigators review
the PSA crew's last moments

on the recovered
cockpit voice recording.

All right, hit it.

Are we clear
of that Cessna?

Supposed to be.

I guess.

I hope.

Oh, yeah.

Hold on. Go back.

Philip Hogue
focuses in on the conversation

recorded 35 seconds
before the collision.

Are we clear
of that Cessna?

Supposed to be.

I guess. I hope.

Oh, yeah,
before we turned downwind,

I saw them about one o'clock.

Probably behind us now.

The PSA crew not only
doesn't see the Cessna,

they assume they have
already passed it.

It was right in front
of them the whole time.

The 727, when it's flying
in level flight,

is a slightly nose-up condition,

so that the pilots,
as they look out,

they're looking over the nose of
the airplane.

Was the nose of
the aircraft high

and they didn't see the Cessna?

They may not have realized the
Cessna was as close as it was.

The NTSB conducts
a study to determine

how long the PSA crew
could see the Cessna

through their windscreen.

Welcome aboard.

Now use the reference points
to adjust your seat.

They start by
adjusting the pilots' seats

for optimal viewing

using a device called
the design eye reference point.

The manufacturers designed
a very simple

but very effective system

where you line up little balls

in the center post
of the windscreen

that puts your eye in
the same position every time.

Now, if you would,
please take a measurement

from my eye line to
the white ball in the middle.

Okay, now from the eyeball
to the floor, please.

Once the pilots'
viewing positions

have been determined,

the photographer uses
a special camera

to take panoramic images
of each pilot's view.

Okay, let's have a look
at what the pilots can see.

Would you put up the view...

He starts with
the captain's view.

Radar tracks provide
the Cessna's heading,

pitch and bank angle.

They plot this data
on top of the photographs

in 10 second intervals.

Let's see what
the co-pilot can see, please.

What they find
is surprising...

A longer than expected
time period

in which the PSA crew
could see the Cessna.

170 seconds of clear view.

The pilots could have seen
the Cessna in plain view.

How can you miss a plane
that is staring you in the face?

Yeah, it's something falling,
she doesn't say what, but, okay.

All right, I'll take that,
Sue Pritchard.

Investigators wonder
if witness reports

can shed some light
on the mystery.

They discover that there may
have been something in the air

that misled the pilots.

We had collected
220 witness reports.

16 of those witness reports
revealed

that they thought they saw
other aircraft in the area.

Air traffic
controllers don't remember

a third plane flying nearby.

But many small planes don't
carry a transponder,

the device needed
to identify them.

Had they not had a transponder,

the third airplane may not
have been visible to the radar

in the San Diego
approach facility.

Investigators study
the cockpit recordings

more closely,

searching for clues
about a third plane.

Oh, yeah.

Before we turned downwind,
I saw him about one o'clock.

Probably behind us now.

35 seconds
before the crash,

the crew assumed the Cessna
was safely out of the way.

But the captain's one o'clock
reference seems odd.

The flight paths of
the two planes

show that the Cessna was never
in that position.

The Cessna was
at their 11 o'clock.

So what plane were
they looking at?

The fact that
it was at one o'clock

instead of 11 o'clock indicates

that there's a possibility
that he saw another aircraft.

It may have been quite
some distance away,

but he saw another aircraft.

Then, another clue
about a possible third plane.

There's one underneath.

I was looking at that
inbound over there.

The plane he spots
is flying inbound.

That means it's flying in
the opposite direction

of the Cessna that was hit.

It does open and
add further credibility

to the possibility that they saw
a different airplane.

But what plane
exactly may never be known,

even after factoring in
the 16 reported sightings

of other aircraft.

The team concluded
that the 16 witnesses

could not really put an aircraft
in that particular area

at that particular time.

Investigators are at an impasse.

Their visibility study
tells them that the Cessna

was technically visible
for 170 seconds,

nearly three full minutes.

So why did the crew of the 727
lose sight of it?

They go back to
the cockpit recording.

Three miles
just north of the field,

northeast bound.

Cessna 172,
climbing VFR at 1,400.

Okay, stop tape.

135 seconds to impact.

This is when the controller
first mentioned the Cessna.

Okay, roll tape again.

PSA 182.

Two minutes
before the collision,

the crew hears the Cessna's
position being described,

but they haven't
spotted it yet.

The silhouette of the
Cessna would have been difficult

as they were approximately
the same altitude.

They're going in
the same direction.

So one of the things that the
human eye picks up is movement,

and for a good part of the time,

this is not moving
in the windscreen.

San Diego Op's, we're number two
because we try harder.

The Cessna has
now been visible

for nearly 80 seconds
out of their window,

but the crew has
failed to see it.

90 seconds to impact,
they get another warning.

And after we read
and saw what the CVR said,

I feel that they were distracted
in their conversation.

Roll tape.

PSA 182, traffic's
at 12 o'clock, three miles out,

1,700.

Got it.

Traffic in sight.

Stop tape.

85 seconds before impact,

the 727's pilots spot the Cessna
flying ahead of them.

The crew is then instructed
to use visual flight rules

and contact the Lindbergh tower.

Okay, sir,
maintain visual separation.

Contact Lindbergh tower, 133.3.

Have a nice day.

Okay.

They saw it one second,

and then they didn't see it
another second.

Was the conversation such that
they looked away and missed it?

The crew must now
keep the Cessna in view

while performing other tasks.

The captain contacts
the tower controller

and prepares for landing.

Lindbergh,
PSA 182, downwind.

The wings need to be
configured

with the proper slats
and flap settings.

The landing gear
must be lowered.

Systems have to be adjusted.

All of these things
are going on,

so it's a busy place
for three people in a 727.

At this critical moment,

no one is keeping an eye
on the Cessna.

PSA 182, traffic

12 o'clock, one mile, a Cessna.

Is that the one
we're looking at?

Yeah, but I don't
see him now.

The Cessna should be
right here in front of them.

The Cessna was visible

just at about
the windshield level of PSA,

and it's really incredible,
somehow they lost sight of it.

Okay.

Can you show me how you normally
adjust your seat, please?

But when
investigators learn more

about how PSA pilots
adjust their seats,

they begin to understand

how the crew may have lost sight
of the Cessna.

That's it? You don't use
your reference points?

It's not a requirement

to utilize the manufacturer's
designed eye reference position.

Investigators
discover that many pilots

adjust their seats to
their own personal settings.

Pilots come in
all sizes and shapes.

They learn quickly
to adjust the seats

to the position
that's comfortable.

Some pilots
want to sit lower

so they can see
their instruments better.

From this new seat position,

the Cessna's location on
the windshield is recalculated.

The results show
an important difference

between the two seat settings.

With the new setting,

the crew would have had
the Cessna in view

for only 5 to 10 seconds,

not a few minutes.

Five seconds.

That's all.

The position of the Cessna
was down below the nose

or the reference that
the pilots could see.

If they had moved
their heads up,

the Cessna was still visible,

but otherwise,
it was below the windscreen.

Okay, let's play
"find the Cessna".

But even assuming
that the crew did lean forward,

investigators now realize
they would face other problems

in spotting the Cessna.

It's almost camouflaged.

They become harder to see,

and the terrain makes it
even more so,

because you have white roofs,
you have dark roofs,

you have roads,
you have lakes,

you have trees, so that
the background changes,

and the aircraft will move
across this background.

Is that the one
we're looking at?

Yeah, but I don't
see him now.

The Cessna is now
flying too close to the 727

to be viewed without
leaning forward,

and it's viewed
against a backdrop

that makes it hard to recognize.

PSA 182, cleared to land.

182 is cleared to land.

A collision
is now imminent,

and the six men involved
in preventing it are oblivious.

The Cessna pilot can't
see out his window.

His instructor has failed to

notice the plane is off course.

The 727's crew has the Cessna in
a blind spot,

but both controllers assume
the crew can see the Cessna

and will avoid it.

There's only one thing that
can stop this accident

from happening,
and 144 lives depend on it.

The PSA captain should
have made the suggestion

to the tower,
"I don't see him anymore".

Captain Mcferon
will talk to the tower

about the Cessna,

but a misunderstanding over
a single word will prove deadly.

The two planes are 70 seconds
from colliding over San Diego.

PSA 182, traffic
12 o'clock, one mile, a Cessna.

Flaps five.

Is that the one
we're looking for?

Yeah, but I don't
see him now.

The fate of flight
182 now depends

on the captain clearly
communicating this to the tower.

Okay, we had him there
a minute ago.

But the captain
is not clear.

182, roger.

And the controller assumes

the Cessna is still in sight.

When the PSA crew
lost visual contact,

they were responsible to tell
the air traffic controller,

"I no longer see the Cessna".

Still uncertain about
the Cessna's location,

once again, the captain tries
to explain his situation

to the tower.

I think he's passed
off to our right.

The comment that the captain
makes indicates

that they're not sure,

that they don't have him
in sight at that moment.

The controller could
force the PSA flight

or the Cessna to change course,
but he does nothing.

It's very difficult
to determine

what that exchange between the
air traffic controller and PSA

meant to each of the pilots.

The captain made the comment...

I think he's passed
off to our right.

Indicating that
he wasn't 100% sure,

but the air traffic controller
heard it

as a declarative statement
and answered...

Yeah.

What that meant to the PSA crew,
I'm not sure we'll ever know.

He was right over here
a minute ago.

Yeah.

But they were satisfied
with the situation enough

that they continued
the approach,

and the air traffic controller
was satisfied

with the situation enough

that he did not make any
further comments about it.

Okay, we have...

Investigators
want to know why

the controller
took no action.

They compare two separate
recordings of the conversation

between the captain
and the controller.

Okay, Chris,
let's hear the cockpit first.

I think he's passed
off to our right.

"Passed". I thought
I heard "passing" before.

Double check that, please.

I think he's passed
off to our right.

He's still saying
"passed".

Let's compare it with the tower,

'cause I think
I heard "passing".

They make a startling discovery.

I think he's passing
off to our right.

Passing.

I was right.

It does sound like "passing".

But due to radio static,

the controller heard the word
"passing", not "passed".

The difference may have sealed
the fate of flight 182.

Passing. Big difference.

The recordings reveal that

while the pilot of PSA 182
said one thing,

the Lindbergh tower controller
heard something else.

I think he's passing
off to our right.

Yeah.

Now investigators
understand why

the controller took no action.

If he had heard the words
"he's passed off to our right",

he would have seen
from his radar

that the pilot was mistaken

and that the 727 had not
actually passed the Cessna.

The air traffic
controller heard it

as "he's passing
off to our right".

That indicated that they still
had visual contact with it.

He would believe
that the pilot

was being able to
maintain the separation.

It was his responsibility, and
you would not worry about it.

In the spring of 1979,

investigators finally conclude
who is at fault.

The determination of
the board's report is very clear

that the crew obviously
did not see the aircraft,

the Cessna,

in time to divert it away

from a catastrophic accident.

The PSA crew,
when they lost visual contact,

is responsible to tell
the air traffic controller,

"I no longer see the Cessna",
and that they did not do.

The Cessna pilot
is also mentioned

as a factor for changing course

without notifying the tower.

Both controllers are criticized
for not following protocol

and giving the 727's crew the
specific heading of the Cessna.

Thinking back to the day,

there's just a tremendous
sadness that comes to mind.

You know that accidents happen,

but you think
this was an accident

that could have been prevented,
but it wasn't.

Recommendations
in the report focus on

improving the air traffic
control system

at Lindbergh field.

They changed procedures
after this.

They put in
a terminal control area,

and there was a great deal
of restriction on

what kind of traffic could go
through and at what altitudes,

so a great many
different restrictions

to make it a safer operation
were put into place at Lindbergh

after this accident.

We're out of Los Angeles, San
Diego at 0905.

PSA 182, roger.

I just called my off report.

The guy started laughing.

Make it up by reporting
our next takeoff now.

There's another
legacy of PSA 182...

New rules governing
all conversations in the cockpit

when flying below 10,000 feet.

Today's regulation
requires that

you concentrate
your conversation exclusively

to the operation
of the airplane.

At the time of
the PSA 182 accident,

the...that regulation
was not in effect.

PSA 182 also
helped push the FAA

in the search for
new technology.

Three years after the accident,
in 1981,

a safety device called TCAS,

or traffic collision
avoidance system,

was put into development.

Now installed in
all passenger aircraft,

the system warns pilots when
another plane comes too close.

TCAS was a god bless.

We now can put it
on our transponders

and we can see or hear
what's going on

or be told what's going on
with aircraft around us.

We have come in big leaps

to make aviation safer

for people to fly
and feel comfortable

that their airplane is gonna get
where they want to go.