Right up until his death on Monday at age 101, Leonard wanted the report on the deadly Flight 182 crash in 1978 reopened
Among San Diego aviation buffs, Leo Leonard will always be remembered as a co-founder of PSA, the spunky San Diego-born Pacific Southwest Airlines that flew the California skies from 1949 to 1987. But until his dying day, the 101-year-old Del Cerro resident was hoping to rewrite the history of how some of the pilots he hired during the company’s glory days are remembered.
In 2001, he penned a long letter to The San Diego Union-Tribune on the “true story” behind the crash. Three years later, he had a plaque memorializing the Flight 182 victims installed in the PSA exhibit at the San Diego Air & Space Museum. In 2010, he worked with museum officials to expand that exhibit. And in 2019,about his goal of getting the National Transportation Safety Board to re-examine its findings on the crash.
“He was just very sad about that,” she said. “He wanted to have the Federal Aviation Administration come out and say ‘we are to blame,’ but it was never going to happen.” “What marks that generation is what they stood for,” Scott said. “Their honor, their word and their handshake was everything. They had high integrity and purpose. They were all-around great guys.”
Eventually, PSA bought its own planes, added flights to Burbank and 11 other California cities and became known as the “friendly airline.” Pilots greeted passengers and kept their cockpit doors open during flights, stewardesses wore miniskirts and PSA’s planes became known as “grinning birds,” because their noses were painted with smiles. Eventually, PSA would become one of the most profitable regional airlines in the country, but Friedkin wasn’t around to enjoy the success.
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