On Sept. 25, 1978, 144 people perished in a plane crash in a residential neighborhood of North Park. Now, 46 years later, a memorial plaque finally honors the victims of that tragedy.
San Diego City Councilman Stephen Whitburn dedicated the long-awaited memorial Wednesday at the corner of Dwight and Nile streets, where Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182 came down on that fateful day.
"For far too long, there has been no memorial to the victims of this tragedy," Whitburn said. He added, "The crash of PSA Flight 182 is a significant event in San Diego's history. This plaque will be a lasting tribute to honor the lives lost, the families affected and the legacy of safety improvements in aviation that followed."
The flight, a routine trip from Sacramento to San Diego, collided mid-air with a small private plane. PSA 182 crashed, killing all 135 aboard and seven on the ground in North Park. The small Cessna 172 plane hit ground on Polk Avenue, killing the two men on board. Nine people on the ground were injured.
Bea Terkel's daughter Marla Scavia was a PSA flight attendant who wasn't working on Flight 182 — she was a passenger. When the crash happened, Terkel didn't know her daughter was on the plane.
“I was at work when this occurred, and when they told me, I said 'Oh no, my daughter’s not on that flight,' cause I knew she wasn’t working," said Terkel.
She said the last 46 years have been an awfully long wait, but she said Wednesday that she was glad the memorial was finally in place.
“It was a long time in coming, but they’ve done a fine job and everyone is to commended for that. But it’s been a tough 46 years 'cause you never forget," she said.
Nearby, St. Augustine High School was used for triage and as a morgue for the victims. On Wednesday morning, it officially became another site for a memorial. It's now part of a prayer garden on the north side of the school.
The memorial is in the middle of the garden. It features a mosaic of 144 hand-painted tiles, one for every victim. The tiles are in muted shades of red and orange, which were PSA's colors.
“This prayer garden is certainly beautiful and will preserve the history of the event, and give all of us a place for quiet solitude," said Augustinian Fr. James Clifford, who was at St. Augustine's that day. Clifford happened to look up just before the Cessna collided with the 727. He watched in horror as both planes plummeted to the ground.
The crash remains the deadliest aviation disaster in California history and was, at the time, the deadliest in U.S. history, until it was surpassed less than a year later by the American Airlines Flight 191 disaster, which killed 273 people.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria also attended Wednesday's dedication. According to Whitburn, the efforts "represent a long overdue recognition of the significance of this event, not only to the families and friends of the victims, but also to the broader San Diego community and aviation industry."
Whitburn promised in a KPBS news story at last year's anniversary that a memorial would be completed within a year. On Wednesday, he said, "the clouds have parted, the sun is shining, and I think it’s symbolic of the weight that has been lifted off of the family members who now have a rightful place to come and mourn and remember those who we lost."
