This week’s featured link:
PSA crash at 40: A page of San Diego history ‘written in blood’ – The San Diego Union-Tribune
It has been 40 years since a PSA 727 smashed into a Cessna over San Diego, killing everyone onboard both aircraft and some on the ground. There were a couple looks back in the media this week, and I thought this one was a good read. It’s remarkable to think about just how far we’ve come since then.
Two for the road:
Norwegian Air drops four U.S.-Europe routes; Scotland, Northern Ireland axed – USA Today
Norwegian’s grand experiment with 737s across the Pond doesn’t seem to be working out as planned. Flights from Hartford were already cut. Now on the other side, Edinburgh and Belfast are losing their flights. I suppose that’s just how it works when you throw darts. Some will hit the bulls-eye while others won’t even hit the dartboard.
Royal Air Maroc retires its last Boeing 747 superjumbo aircraft – AirlinerWatch
You probably didn’t even know Royal Air Maroc operated 747s, but it had been flying them solely on the route to Montreal. The aircraft has now been retired, so that’s one less 747 operator in the world.
4 comments on “3 Links I Love: 40 Years After the Crash, Norwegian Cuts, Another 747 Retirement”
I remember pulling into the parking lot at work that morning, and the PSA crash news came on the radio. I just sat there listening to it and thinking how awful it all was.
Hi Cranky, The story on PSA 182 brought back some sad memories. I worked for PSA at the time and was sent to the scene shortly after the crash. It was really horrible with body parts and pieces of airplane scattered all around. PS182 was the first morning flight into SAN from LAX and was used by employee commuters, so there was a heavy toll among PSA people. Three people that worked directly with me were on the airplane. I had used 182 myself for about six months when I first started work at PSA and was in a personal funk for some time after the crash. I wouldn’t ever want to see something like that again.
Norwegian’s moves sound more like playing hardball around getting an APD waiver than necessarily an indication that the routes weren’t performing…
I lived in North Park during this tragedy. Two of my brothers saw the plane collide. I was at UCSD that morning for my first day of college. I only had an 8am class scheduled, and being the first class, we were out early, by 830. I would have been driving home on Nile St right about the same time/place flight 182 crashed, but luckily I decided to take a quick swim at Scripps that morning. Heading home, I heard the local radio station dejay declare .”You see that smoke over North Park. That’s a .downed PSA jetliner”. On I-805, I floored the accelerator on my VW bug, doing a top speed of about 75mph when the speed limit was 55. I remembered ambulances passing me by as if I was standing soon. The off ramps I normally took were closed by the time I hot there, so I had to go in a back way. Luckily for me, the bodies and parts were not on the south perimeter of the crash site. I later learned that my brother arrived at the site soon after it happened and saw too much. My father later told us, “You never want to be the first one to a plane crash”. It was blazing hot that week. My brother’s school gym was where they took the bodies, and there was no A/C. It took a long time to sort all the body parts, and the smell was terrible. They had to replace the floor it was so bad. San Diegians banded together that day and the line at the downtown blood bank did circle the block. I’ll never forget that day, it’s forever seared in my memory.