Names written in chalk at the PSA Flight 182 memorial ceremony. People are gathered beneath a canopy set up in the street ahead of the written names.
The names of those lost in the PSA Flight 182 disaster written on the sidewalk in chalk on Thursday September 25, 2025. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Times of San Diego)

A PSA jetliner hit the ground at 9:01 a.m. Sept. 25, 1978 in North Park, changing thousands of lives instantly.

PSA Flight 182 had collided with a Cessna 172. The Boeing 727 crashed near Dwight and Nile streets, while the Cessna came down near Polk Avenue and 32nd Street.

No one aboard the planes survived – 135 died on Flight 182 as did the two co-pilots on the smaller aircraft.

What’s more, the crash killed seven people on the ground, including two children, while injuring nine others. More than 20 homes were damaged or destroyed.

Loved ones still make the trek to remember and they did so again Thursday, 47 years later, gathering at Dwight and Nile with the names of everyone who died that day carefully inscribed on the sidewalk in chalk.

People sit under a red canopy listening to speakers, who stand at a table with an urn full of flowers for the victims of Flight 182.
Loved ones gathered Thursday September 25, 2025 to honor those lost in the disaster when PSA Flight 182 crashed in 1978. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Times of San Diego)