Following their collision, both the Boeing and the Cessna crashed into North Park, a residential but urban uptown neighborhood located roughly three miles northeast of downtown San Diego.

PSA 182 crashed just north of the intersection of Dwight and Nile Streets, killing all 135 people aboard the aircraft as well as 7 bystanders on the ground or residents in their homes, including 2 children.

There were 128 passengers on board, including 29 PSA employees; the weather in San Diego that Monday morning was sunny and clear with ten miles (16 km) of visibility.

At the time of the collision, the Cessna was on the missed approach (in visual meteorological conditions) from San Diego airport's (also known as Lindbergh Field) Runway 9, heading east and climbing.

The report said that another possible reason that the PSA aircrew had difficulty observing the Cessna was that its fuselage was made visually smaller due to foreshortening.

Ultimately, the NTSB maintained that, regardless of that change in course, it was the responsibility of the crew in the overtaking jet to comply with the regulatory requirement to pass "well clear" of the Cessna.

[5] Cameraman Steve Howell from local TV channel 39 was attending the same event and captured the Cessna on film as it fell toward Earth, the sound of the impacting 727, and the mushroom cloud from the resulting crash.

[6] The wreckage of the Cessna plummeted to the ground, its vertical stabilizer torn from its fuselage and bent leftward, its debris hitting around 3,500 feet (1,100 m) northwest of where the 727 went down.

PSA 182's right wing was heavily damaged, rendering the plane uncontrollable and sending it careening into a sharp right bank (seen in the Wendt photos), and the fuel tank inside it ruptured and started a fire, when this final conversation took place inside the cockpit: Flight 182 struck a house at 3611 Nile Street, 3 miles (5 km) northeast of Lindbergh Field, in a residential section of San Diego known as North Park.

At the nearby St. Augustine High School, a triage and command and control center was established, with its gymnasium being used as a makeshift morgue and for forensic investigation.

[9] [citation needed] Freezer units were used to preserve the biological remains, as San Diego was in the middle of a severe heat wave, with temperatures exceeding 100 °F (38 °C).

National Transportation Safety Board report number NTSB/AAR-79-05,[1] released April 19, 1979, determined that the probable cause of the accident was the failure of the PSA flight crew to follow proper air traffic control (ATC) procedures.

Additionally, the Cessna pilots, for reasons unknown, did not maintain their assigned east-northeasterly heading of 070° after completing a practice instrument approach, nor did they notify ATC of their course change.

McAdams also "sharply disagreed" with the majority of the panel on other issues, giving more weight to inadequate ATC procedures as another "probable cause" to the accident, rather than merely treating them as a contributing factor.

McAdams also added the "possible misidentification of the Cessna by the PSA aircrew due to the presence of a third unknown aircraft in the area" as a contributing factor.

The report states that the conversation was not a causal factor in the accident, but that "it does point out the dangers inherent in this type of cockpit environment during descent and approach to landing.

Although it was obvious that the flaps were damaged or destroyed by the collision, NTSB investigators could not determine the condition of the hydraulic system in the wing and whether the plumbing inside it had actually been ruptured or merely flattened.

The final conclusion of the NTSB was that even if the hydraulic lines in the right wing were undamaged, the missing flaps and spreading fire would have adversely affected the plane's aerodynamic profile, and in all likelihood Flight 182 was completely uncontrollable after the collision.

[1]: 31–32 In the aftermath of the devastation on the ground, a controversy was renewed in San Diego over the placement of such a busy airport in a heavily populated area.

Burke shot his former boss, a flight attendant, the two pilots, and Arthur before he sent the plane into a nosedive, causing the aircraft to crash at the speed of sound.

On the 20th anniversary of the crash, a tree was planted next to the North Park branch library, and a memorial plaque was dedicated to those who lost their lives.

[15] Informal memorial gatherings are held annually on the anniversary of the crash, at the intersection of Dwight and Nile Streets in North Park.

[15] The ATC recording of the accident, as well as graphic footage of the aftermath, was included in the mondo film Faces of Death, released two months after the crash.