Relatives, Friends Hold Memorial for PSA Crash Victims

At a cemetery about 20 miles from where a PSA plane crash killed 43 people last week, friends and relatives gathered Wednesday for a memorial service for 26 victims whose remains still are unidentified.

About 125 people attended the service at Los Osos Memorial Park. On a cold, drizzly day, they gathered outside the chapel. A priest, a pastor and a rabbi read eulogies and an honor guard from Vandenberg Air Force Base, representing the veterans who died in the crash, closed the service with “Taps.”

Among those in attendance was Larry Shiba, whose brother, Jonathan Shiba of Pacifica, was a crash victim. He said the family already had a private memorial service in the Bay Area last week.

“It was hard enough attending the first service, but I still felt it was important to be here today,” said Shiba, 35, of San Martin. “I wanted to pay my respects in the area where my brother’s life ended.”

17 Already Identified

The remains of 17 people already have been identified and shipped to their hometown mortuaries, said Samuel Douglass, the funeral director handling arrangements for Pacific Southwest Airlines.

Although several more people are expected to be identified, he said, the memorial service was held because it is “too hard on the families to wait” until the painstaking process of identifying body parts is complete.

“The process starts to slow down and it’s unfair to leave the families hanging,” Douglass said. “We find the families don’t start to put their lives together until we have the final service.”

PSA chartered jets from Los Angeles and San Francisco for the relatives and each family was transported to the service by individual limousine.

Avoid a Mass Service

Douglass said he wanted to “avoid the feeling of a mass service.”

After the service many of the families visited the site of the crash.

“From the day of the accident I’ve wanted to see the site,” said Shiba, who attended the service with four relatives. “That is where I believe my brother’s soul is; that is where he was last alive.”

PSA held funeral services on Friday at its corporate headquarters in San Diego, said company spokesman Margie Craig.