Few details were available after a driver struck and killed a pedestrian near the San Diego Airport on December 7, 2024.
California Highway Patrol (CHP) issued a Sig Alert at 8:25 p.m. Saturday due to a pedestrian accident on I-5 southbound near the intersection of Sassafras Street and Kettner Blvd by the San Diego International Airport.
San Diego International Airport is the busiest single-runway airport in the country. It may also be one of the most challenging ones for pilots. Descending aircraft pass perilously close to downtown San Diego skyscrapers as they negotiate a steep angle descent over the crest of Bunkers Hill and deal with radically shifting wind currents.
Fueled by excitement over the aviator’s historic transatlantic solo flight, San Diego Municipal Airport – Lindbergh Field opened in August 1928.
Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) established its headquarters in San Diego and started service at Lindbergh Field in 1949. The April 1957 Official Airline Guide shows 42 departures per day. Almost all destinations were in California and Arizona, except two American flights to Texas (Dallas and El Paso).
The airport expanded in the 1960s with the arrival of the first jet-propelled aircraft in 1960. Nonstop flights to Chicago started in 1962 and to New York in 1967.
In 2002, the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority changed the airport’s name from Lindbergh Field to San Diego International Airport in 2003. However, the departure of some major carriers, along with some natural disasters, such as SARS and COVID-19, have affected air traffic at the airport.