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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 aviator pushed to rewrite the history of how some of the pilots he hired during the company’s glory days are remembered.
The World War II veteran died of natural causes at his home in Del Cerro, his family said.
In an interview just three weeks before his death, Leonard said he wanted to honor the 144 lives lost in the Sept. 25, 1978, crash of PSA Flight 182. But his dying wish was to clear the name of Capt. James McFeron, who federal investigators found responsible for the fiery accident, which occurred when the 727 jetliner collided with a Cessna airplane during its final descent over North Park to San Diego International Airport.
In 1962, Flight 739 disappeared over the Pacific. Grieving families still want answers.
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HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - On March 16, 1962, three years before the US entered the Vietnam War, a transport airliner from the Flying Tiger Line was bound for Saigon.
Between Guam and the Philippines, it suddenly disappeared.
Jennifer Kirk’s uncle, Army soldier Donald Sargent, was on board.
“I think for the families it’s the unknown, not knowing what happened to that plane. What was there mission? Where were they going?” she said.
An ocean tanker reported a mid-air explosion, but a search turned up no wreckage or remains.
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Capt. Gregory Thomas was a 48-year-old pilot with nearly 20,000 flight hours under his belt. Described as “colorful and heroic,” he flew with the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II and later safely landed a cargo plane on a beach after all four engines quit. He lived on a 55-foot yacht in Red Bank.
On March 16, 1962, he was at the controls for one of the biggest tragedies and mysteries in U.S. aviation history.