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Pacific Southwest Flight 1771
Summary
DateDecember 7, 1987
TypeDeliberate crash
SiteSan Luis Obispo, California
Passengers38
Crew5
Injuries0
Fatalities43
Survivors0
Aircraft typeBritish Aerospace 146
OperatorPacific Southwest Airlines
Tail numberN350PS
Flight originLos Angeles International Airport
DestinationSan Francisco International Airport

Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 was a commercial flight that crashed near San Luis Obispo, California, on December 7, 1987. Events 43 BC - Marcus Tullius Cicero assassinated 1696 - Connecticut Route 108, one of the oldest highways Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) San Luis Obispo (sænˈluːɪs əˈbɪspoʊ Spanish for St Louis the Bishop) is a city in California, located roughly midway between San Francisco California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout Pacific Southwest Airlines was an Airline headquartered in San Diego California. An aircraft registration is a unique Alphanumeric string that identifies an Aircraft, in similar fashion to a licence plate on an automobile Los Angeles International Airport is the primary Airport serving Los Angeles, California, the second-most populated metropolitan area of San Francisco International Airport is a major international Airport located south of downtown San Francisco, California, United States adjacent to the Pacific Southwest Airlines was an Airline headquartered in San Diego California. San Luis Obispo (sænˈluːɪs əˈbɪspoʊ Spanish for St Louis the Bishop) is a city in California, located roughly midway between San Francisco California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. Events 43 BC - Marcus Tullius Cicero assassinated 1696 - Connecticut Route 108, one of the oldest highways Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) All 43 people on board the aircraft died, including the man who caused the crash, a disgruntled former employee of USAir, the parent company of PSA.

Contents

Passengers

Among the dead were four executives of the Chevron Corporation USA. They were James R. Sylla, president of Chevron U. S. A. Inc. , the company's domestic oil and gas subsidiary, and Owen F. Murphy, Jocelyn G. Kempe and Allen F. Swanson, all public affairs executives of Chevron U. S. A. from Southern California. Other fatalities included Wolfgang Studemann, a West German physicist and space scientist who was the director of the Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy in Lindau, West Germany and Dr. The Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (abbreviation MPS; German: Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung is a Research institute Neil Webb, president of Dominican University of California. For other colleges with the same name see Dominican College Dominican University of California is an independent university of [1]

Cause

David Burke (born May 18, 1952) was a former employee of USAir, the airline that had recently purchased, and was in the process of absorbing, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA). Events 1152 - Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine. Year 1952 ( MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. US Airways Inc is the fifth largest Airline in the United States. Burke had been terminated by USAir for petty theft of $69 from an airline fund and, after meeting with his supervisor in an unsuccessful attempt to be reinstated, he purchased a ticket on Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771, a daily flight from Los Angeles, California to San Francisco. Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city Burke's supervisor, Raymond F. Thomson, took the flight regularly because he lived in San Francisco but worked at Los Angeles International Airport. The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city Los Angeles International Airport is the primary Airport serving Los Angeles, California, the second-most populated metropolitan area of [2]

Using his USAir credentials, Burke, armed with a loaded .44 Magnum revolver[3] that he had borrowed from a co-worker, was able to bypass the security checkpoint at Los Angeles International Airport. rEVOLVEr is the fourth studio album by Swedish metal band The Haunted. Los Angeles International Airport is the primary Airport serving Los Angeles, California, the second-most populated metropolitan area of After boarding the plane, Burke wrote a message on an air-sickness bag. The note read:

Hi Ray. I think it's sort of ironical [sic] that we ended up like this. Sic is a Latin word meaning "thus" "so" "as such" or "just as that" I asked for some leniency for my family. Remember? Well, I got none and you'll get none. [4]

As the plane, a four engine British Aerospace BAe 146-200, cruised at 22,000 feet (6700 m) over the central California coast, the cockpit voice recorder recorded the sound of two shots being fired in the cabin. British Aerospace (BAe was a UK aircraft and defence-systems manufacturer that is now part of BAE Systems. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout The cockpit door was opened and a female, presumed to be a flight attendant, told the cockpit crew "We have a problem". Flight attendants or cabin crew (historically known as stewards air hosts/hostesses or stewardesses) are members of an Aircrew The captain replied, "What kind of problem?" Burke then announced "I'm the problem", then fired three more shots that incapacitated the pilots.

Several seconds later, the cockpit voice recorder picked up increasing windscreen noise as the airplane pitched down and began to accelerate. A final gunshot was heard and it is speculated that Burke shot himself. The plane then descended and crashed into the hillside of a cattle ranch at 4:16 p. m. in the Santa Lucia Mountains near Paso Robles[5] and Cayucos. The Santa Lucia Mountains or Santa Lucia Range is a Mountain range in coastal California, running from Monterey southeast for 105 miles (170 Paso Robles (full name El Paso de Robles) is a city in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Cayucos is a Census-designated place located on the coast in San Luis Obispo County California. The plane was estimated to have crashed nose first at a speed of around 700 MPH, disintegrating into thousands of pieces. The force of the impact meant that 27 passengers were never identified.

It was determined several days later by the FBI (after the discovery of both the handgun containing six spent bullet casings and the note written on the air-sickness bag) that Burke was the person responsible for the crash. FBI investigators were also able to lift a print from a fragment of finger sandwiched in the pistol's trigger guard, which positively identified Burke. In addition to the evidence uncovered at the crash site, other factors surfaced: Burke's co-worker admitted to having lent him the gun, and Burke had also left a farewell message on his girlfriend's telephone answering machine.

Previously, Burke had worked for an airline in Rochester, New York, where he was a suspect in a drug-smuggling ring that was bringing cocaine from Jamaica to Rochester via the airline. Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York State, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Cocaine ( benzoylmethyl ecgonine) is a Crystalline Tropane Alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the Coca plant Jamaica (ˈdʒəˈmeɪkə} is an Island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width situated in the Caribbean Sea. He was never officially charged.

Consequences

Several federal laws were passed after the crash, including a law that required "immediate seizure of all airline employee credentials" after termination from an airline position. A policy was also put into place stipulating that all airline flight crew were to be subject to the same security measures as passengers.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "4 Chevron officials died in air crash," The New York Times, December 9, 1987; "Passengers had variety of reasons to be on doomed flight," Seattle Times, December 13, 1987
  2. ^ "Gun-toting fired employee linked to PSA plane crash; ex-boss was also on flight," Los Angeles Times, December 8, 1987
  3. ^ "Security badges lost," Houston Chronicle
  4. ^ "Note of doom found in PSA jet wreckage; message apparently written by fired USAir employee supports FBI's theory of vengeance," Los Angeles Times, December 11, 1987
  5. ^ "Ex-worker's badge found," Houston Chronicle

External links

This list of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft is grouped by the years in which the accidents and incidents occurred Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 was a Pacific Air Lines Fairchild F-27A airliner that crashed at 649 a The Seattle Times, one of two daily Newspapers serving Seattle Washington, United States, is the largest daily newspaper in the state of The Los Angeles Times (also known as the LA Times) is a daily Newspaper published in Los Angeles California and distributed The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily Newspaper in Texas, USA. The Los Angeles Times (also known as the LA Times) is a daily Newspaper published in Los Angeles California and distributed The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily Newspaper in Texas, USA.
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