This is part two of a two-part series. Read part one here.
It was the worst air disaster in the United States at the time. In late September of 1978, a Pacific Southwest Airlines jet and a small Cessna collided over North Park. 144 people were killed.
Now, people with close connections to the crash say they're tired of waiting for a neighborhood memorial.
“Why isn’t there one here? Why can’t the politicians do that? Do I have to do it? They should do it," said Mike Bagnas, who watched the PSA jet go down in flames from a field at St. Augustine High School, several blocks away.
“None of us have a place to grieve. There’s no cemetery, there’s no headstone where I can say, 'This is where I can pay my respects,'" said Myra Sulit Pelowski, who lost her brother Michael. He was the last person to board PSA Flight 182 in Sacramento, en route to San Diego.
Both Bagnas and Pelowski have been working for more than 10 years to get a proper memorial placed near the corner of Dwight and Nile streets, where the Boeing 727 smashed into the ground.
The day after we spoke with Bagnas and Pelowski, we met San Diego City Councilmember Stephen Whitburn at the corner of Dwight and Nile in North Park.
“I can’t believe that 45 years later, we still don’t have a proper memorial to the people who perished," said Whitburn, who represents District 3, which includes North Park.
“We’ve heard how important it is to the family members of those who died that we have a memorial here to honor those who perished in this," Whitburn said.
Both Pelowski and Bagnas said the neighborhood has shown overwhelming support for placing a memorial here.
There are two city-owned pieces of land within a block of the PSA crash site, a little piece at the eastern end of Dwight Street, and a triangle of land a block or so west of the site.
Pelowski and Bagnas said the moment has come for the city to move the project forward, to finally, 45 years later, bring the memorial into reality. Whitburn said he agrees.
“I think it’s time for the city of San Diego to step up and do this itself, and so I am now working with city staff to see how we can get a memorial in place as the city and have the city get this done," the Councilmember said.
Pelowski and Bagnas said they’ve heard that before. So, we asked Whitburn what concrete steps he could show he was taking to move the project forward.
“I have a meeting scheduled for later this week with city staff to get a memorial placed where it belongs to honor the victims of this tragedy," he said.
That meeting has now happened, and a representative for Whitburn said the councilmember conveyed his strong stance on getting the memorial project done.
But what about a timeline? How long before family members and others scarred by this tragedy see actual progress? Whitburn said, not long.
“We are going to get a memorial to honor those who died in this tragedy. There’s no reason why it should have taken 45 years to get this done, and I’m determined that it’s not going to take 46," he said.
If it finally happens, a proper memorial will give surviving family members and others deeply affected by this tragedy a place to go to pay their respects to the 144 people who died on one of the saddest days in the history of San Diego.
