30th anniversary of the crash of flight 182

Today, September 25, 2008, is the 30th anniversary of the crash of PSA flight 182. It was and still is, the worst

airplane crash in Californias history. Why am I posting this on this site? the answer is, of all of the photos taken that

day ,two pictures went around the world, and appeared in all of the worlds major newspapers. They were taken by a

County of San Diego photographer by the name of Hans Wendt. Mr. Wendt was using a Nikon Nikkormat EL camera.

Here is part of a story that appeared in the San Diego Union newspaper. "I just got a fraction of a second to move the

focus to infinity and one shot before the plane got out of my sight." recalled Wendt,44, who works for the county

public information office. " I moved to the other side of the gas station canopy and got one more shot. I wasn't sure

that I had a picture because I didn't have time to check anything - shutter speed or apeture," he said. "I was lucky to

have enough time to focus." Both photos turned out. Note! both photos appeared in the San Diego Union newspaper

that day or the day after. I can recall where I was when this hoorible event happened; I was at work, washing

windows on the recreation center I was assigned to. I looked to the west, and saw a hugh ball of black smoke

billowing up, and thought that a navy ship had caught fire.

Mr. Wendt did not, at first, get exclusive rights to his photos because the County of San Diego claimed that since he

was a county employee, and on a county assignment, that the county, not Mr. Wendtowned the rights to the

photographs. I was not until a large outcry from many professionel photographer groups and other photographers, did

Mr. Wendt get full rights to his photos.I have kept a memorial issue of the San Diego Union newspaper for thirty

years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=543255

I remember that incident very well. It struck the neighborhood I rode my bicycle through to work at Balboa hospital every morning, about an hour and a half after my usual commute. Being on a bicycle I was able to get closer to the crash area during the following days than most cars. I'm not sure I'd have had the presence of mind to take photos.

Lex, how long did you live in San Diego? I am a life long resident of El Cajon,

10News as well as channel 8 news, and KNSD7-39, did stories on the crash; interviewing many of the fire and police who responded to the incident.

I can not believe it has been thirty years.

Richard, I spent 1976 in San Diego at boot camp and NRMC San Diego for Hospital Corps school. After a stint at Camp Pendleton and advanced training at NNMC Bethesda in '78, I'd just returned to duty at Balboa in August of '78 and was living on the east side of San Diego. (I lived in SD until '81, tho' I'd moved a couple of times by then. I also moonlighted at various civilian hospitals, including in El Cajon.)

 

Our wing of the hospital overlooked the neighborhood where the crash occurred, but none of us saw it. We literally felt the "whump!" of the impact tho', and watched the chaos throughout the day. I worked in a critical care unit and was unable to leave until much later that day to find out whether my residential neighborhood was affected. As it turned out our place was a few miles from the impact site.

 

It is indeed difficult to believe it's been 30 years. It seems more recent in memory than an equally tragic Flight 191 crash at D/FW airport in 1985, perhaps because while I knew people who worked nearby it was miles away from my home in Arlington. I never saw the damage firsthand from Flight 191, while I passed near the neighborhood hit by Flight 182 daily for many months.

 

I didn't study journalism until later, after my discharge, so I wasn't even thinking in terms of photographing the site for posterity at the time.

Tonight is the eve of that tragedy's fortieth anniversary.

 

Like Lex said above, I too heard and felt the impact under my feet while marching at Naval Training Center San Diego. None of us knew at that moment what happened. Ironically, we were all headed towards fire training to watch "Trial By Fire", a Navy documentary covering the fiery, horrific 1967 flight deck accident aboard the USS Forrestal. After the film we stepped outside and noticed an angry black smoke column rising east of us, and being carried west by the Santa Ana winds. Soon after we were informed of the jet crash into a residential neighborhood, and I imagined those scenes would have much in common with Forrestal's. Enough said.

 

The next morning, Mr. Wendt's terrifying images dominated the newspaper boxes on base, and I for one have never, ever forgotten them. It seems almost like yesterday. Godspeed, PSA Flight 182 and to those who met you so unexpectedly on the ground at Niles & Dwight.

The flight number: Air India flight went down off the coast of Ireland 23 June 1985 killing 329. Strange coincidence, both flight numbers 182.

 

I was involved photographically in that I was the only person having photographs of the suspects in paramilitary training. The pictures sold all over the world.