Pacific Air Lines flight 773
| Pacific Air Lines flight 773 | |
|---|---|
 The unlucky machine in 1962 |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Intentional crash caused by the murder of the pilots |
| place | San Ramon ( USA ) |
| date | May 7, 1964 |
| Fatalities | 44 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Injured | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Fairchild F-27 |
| operator | Pacific Air Lines |
| Mark | N2770R |
| Departure airport | Reno (USA) |
| Destination airport | San Francisco (USA) |
| Passengers | 41 |
| crew | 3 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 ( flight number : PC773) was a scheduled Pacific Air Lines flight from Reno , Nevada to San Francisco International Airport , on which a Fairchild F-27 on May 7, 1964 at 6:49 a.m. ( PST ) crashed near the town of San Ramon , California . The probable cause is the wounding or killing of the cockpit crew by a passenger. The driverless machine then crashed into a mountainside. All living inmates were killed in the impact, a total of 44 people died.
accident
plane
Flight PC773 was carried out with a Fairchild aircraft of the type F-27 with the registration number N2770R . In the Fairchild F-27 is a license built the Fokker 27 Friendship , which with two turboprop engines of the type Rolls-Royce Dart 528-7 equipped. The aircraft was built in 1959 and handed over to Pacific Airlines, it had completed about 10,250 flight hours until the accident.
the accident
Francisco Paula Gonzales was a member of the Philippine sailing team at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, where he finished 24th in the kite class . He now lived in San Francisco and worked as a warehouse clerk. Due to financial difficulties and problems in the marriage, he was considered confused and depressed in the months leading up to the crash. He was heavily in debt, with almost half of his income earmarked for interest and loan repayments.
He had told friends and family that he would die on May 6th or 7th. In the weeks leading up to the crash, he referred to his coming death almost daily. Gonzales bought a Smith & Wesson handgun through a friend's friend and showed it to numerous friends at the airport.
In Reno, he went to the casino the night before his suicide , where he told some casino employees that he didn't care how much he lost because it wouldn't matter tomorrow.
Flight PC773 took off from Reno on May 7, 1964 at 5:54 a.m. PST with 33 passengers and three crew members, destined for San Francisco with a stopover in Stockton . The crew consisted of the 52-year-old captain, the 31-year-old co-pilot and a 30-year-old flight attendant. During the stopover in Stockton, two people got off the plane and ten boarded, so that there were 41 passengers on board when it departed at 6:38 a.m. (PST) for San Francisco.
At 6:48:15 a.m. (PST), about ten minutes after take-off from Stockton, Oakland District Control (ARTCC) received an obscure radio message from Flight 773. Shortly thereafter, the aircraft disappeared from the radar screen .
The district control center tried to radio PC773 without success and asked the pilots of a United Airlines scheduled flight (UA593) nearby if they could see PC773. The response from UA593 was negative. A minute later, however, the crew of the United Airlines plane answered with the message:
“There's a black cloud of smoke coming up through the undercast at […] three-thirty, four o'clock position right now. Looks like [an] oil or gasoline fire. "
“There is a black cloud of smoke coming up through the cloud cover, at […] three-thirty, now four o'clock. Looks like an oil or gasoline fire. "
The Oakland District Control Department realized that the smoke seen by the crew of the UA flight was very likely from the crashed aircraft on Flight PC773.
At an altitude of 5,000 ft (approx. 1,520 m ), the F-27 suddenly went into a dive . The machine crashed on a mountainside in southern Contra Costa County . The last radio message from Flight 773 was later analyzed in the laboratory. It read: “ Skipper's shot. We've been shot. [I was] tryin 'to help. ”
Determination of causes
Investigators of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) found a Smith & Wesson revolver , caliber .357 Magnum , in the completely destroyed aircraft wreck . There were six fired cartridge cases in the drum . The FBI was then called in to the investigation to conduct the criminal investigation into the case. The investigators found that Gonzales has already led before flying to Reno the revolver with him and previously at San Francisco insurance policies for life insurance policies totaling over 105,000 US dollars had concluded in favor of his wife.
As the likely cause of the crash, the CAB cites "Shooting of the captain and the co-pilot by a passenger during the flight" in the accident report. The FBI concluded that Gonzales was the shooter.
Consequences
On August 6, 1964, an ordinance came into force that stipulated that in future the door between the cockpit and passenger cabin must be locked during the flight on all commercial and scheduled flights. An exception to this was provided for some types of aircraft for take-off and landing, including the Fairchild F-27 , on which the door leads to an emergency exit for passengers.
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Accident report Fairchild F-27 N2770R , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on July 26, 2020.
- ^ Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 in the Sports Reference database (archived from the original ), accessed on August 23, 2009
literature
- Serling, Robert J .: Loud and Clear: The Full Answer to Aviation's Vital Question - Are the Jets Really Safe? Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969
Web links
- Civil Aeronautics Board, official investigation report, October 28, 1964 (in English). Retrieved January 6, 2018 .
- Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
- Death Wish. Time , November 6, 1964, accessed August 23, 2009 .
- NTSB - brief incident summary. Retrieved August 23, 2009 .
Coordinates: 37 ° 45 ′ 34 " N , 121 ° 52 ′ 24" W.