Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771

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PSA flight 1771
British Aerospace BAe-146-200A, PSA - Pacific Southwest Airlines AN0070114.jpg

The crashed plane
Accident summary
Accident type Intentional crash caused by the murder of the pilots
place near Cayucos ( USA )
date 7th December 1987
Fatalities 43
Survivors 0
Injured 0
Aircraft
Aircraft type BAe 146
operator Pacific Southwest Airlines
Mark N350PS
Departure airport Los Angeles (USA)
Destination airport San Francisco (USA)
Passengers 38
crew 5
Lists of aviation accidents

Pacific Southwest Airlines flight 1771 was the flight number of a scheduled flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco on which a BAe 146-200 crashed near the city of Cayucos on December 7, 1987 after a former employee with a weapon smuggled on board shot a passenger, a flight attendant, both pilots and a pilot who happened to be on board as a passenger. This and the resulting crash killed 43 people.

accident

the accident

USAir fired employee David Burke for stealing company property valued at $ 69 on November 19, 1987 (about three weeks before the crash). He tried to get his manager to withdraw his notice, but this was unsuccessful.

USAir had recently acquired Pacific Southwest Airlines and the incorporation was ongoing. Burke bought a ticket for flight PSA1771, a daily flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Burke's supervisor was also on board. He used this flight regularly as a commuter because he lived in San Francisco but worked at Los Angeles International Airport .

Through its statements of USAir, which had not yet been recovered his former employer, succeeded Burke, a revolver caliber .44 Magnum at the security checkpoint to sneak past the plane. He had borrowed the gun from a former colleague. After boarding the plane, he wrote the following message on a spit bag :

“Hi Ray. I think it's sort of ironical that we ended up like this. I asked for some leniency for my family. Remember? Well, I got none and you'll get none. "

"Hi Ray, isn't it an irony of fate that we end up like this? I asked for some indulgence for my family, do you remember? Well, I didn't get it and you won't get one either. "

- Los Angeles Times

When the aircraft, a British Aerospace Type BAe 146-200 , was at cruising altitude of 22,000  ft (about 6,700  m ) above the California coast, the cockpit voice recorder recorded the sound of two gunshots coming from the passenger cabin. The door to the cockpit opened and a woman, believed to be a flight attendant , said the pilot, "We have a problem" ( We have a problem ). (As the captain with the words "? What's the problem" ? What kind of problem ) asked, replied Burke: "I am the problem" ( I'm the trouble ), and gave up the cockpit crew of three shots, which made them unable to act.

A few seconds later, the cockpit voice recorder recorded how the driving noise on the cockpit windows increased as the aircraft nodded forward and thereby accelerated. Another shot was subsequently recorded, assuming that Burke shot the airline's chief pilot who happened to be on board as a passenger. In an emergency, he must have tried to reach the cockpit to save the aircraft. According to the TV series Mayday, a piece of Burke's fingertip on the revolver was seized. This suggests that Burke was still alive on impact, gun in hand.

The plane then hit a mountainside in the Santa Lucia Mountains near Paso Robles and Cayucos at 4:16 p.m. ( PST ) . It is estimated that the aircraft hit nose first at a speed of 1,100  km / h (approx. 590  kn ). It was completely destroyed by the force of the impact; 27 passengers could no longer be identified.

Investigations

The crash site was located by a CBS helicopter . The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation team was assisted in its investigation by officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). After two days of searching the wreckage for clues, investigators found a handgun with six full casings and the note Burke had left on the bag. A partial finger trace could be secured on the safety bar of the trigger , which could clearly be assigned to Burke. The investigation also revealed that Burke had borrowed the gun from a former work colleague and that he had left a goodbye message on his girlfriend's answering machine.

consequences

Several federal laws were passed due to the crash. One of them regulated that all access authorizations of employees had to be withdrawn immediately when leaving the company. In addition, airline employees also had to undergo regular security checks from now on.

Filming and documentation

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Los Angeles Times : Gun-toting fired employee linked to PSA plane crash; ex-boss was also on flight , dated December 8, 1987
  2. ^ Security badges lost. Houston Chronicle , archived from the original on October 12, 2012 ; accessed on May 30, 2014 .
  3. ↑ Los Angeles Times, Note of doom found in PSA jet wreckage; message apparently written by fired USAir employee supports FBI's theory of vengeance, December 11, 1987
  4. ↑ Ray means his superior, Raymond F. Thomson. PSA Gunman's Note Told Boss He Was About to Die: Message Written on Paper Bag. Los Angeles Times , accessed December 7, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Ex-worker's badge found. Houston Chronicle , archived from the original on October 3, 2012 ; accessed on May 30, 2014 .
  6. ↑ https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x774g5e

Web links

Coordinates: 35 ° 30 ′ 57 ″  N , 120 ° 51 ′ 19 ″  W.