Original subtitles

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.