Pacific Air Lines Flight 773

Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 was a Fairchild F27A Friendship airliner that crashed at 6:49 a.m. on May 7, 1964, near Danville, California. The crash was most likely the first instance in the United States of an airliner's pilots being shot by a passenger as part of a mass murder–suicide. Francisco Paula Gonzales, 27, shot both the pilot and co-pilot before turning the gun on himself, causing the plane to crash and killing all 44 aboard.[1] The crash was the worst mass murder in modern Californian history.

Pacific Air Lines Flight 773
N2770R, the aircraft involved in the crash, in 1962
Hijacking
DateMay 7, 1964
SummaryMass murder–suicide
SiteContra Costa County, near Danville, California, United States
37°45′33″N 121°52′25″W
Aircraft
Aircraft typeFairchild F27A Friendship
OperatorPacific Air Lines
RegistrationN2770R
Flight originReno–Tahoe International Airport
Reno, Nevada
StopoverStockton Metropolitan Airport
Stockton, California
DestinationSan Francisco International Airport
San Francisco, California
Occupants44
Passengers41 (including perpetrator)
Crew3
Fatalities44
Survivors0

Events preceding the flight

Francisco Gonzales, a warehouse worker living in San Francisco, had been "disturbed and depressed" over marital and financial difficulties in the months preceding the crash. Gonzales was deeply in debt and nearly half of his income was committed to loan repayment, and he had informed both relatives and friends that he "would die on either Wednesday, the 6th of May, or Thursday, the 7th of May." In the week preceding the crash, Gonzales referred to his impending death on a daily basis, and purchased a Smith & Wesson Model 27 .357 Magnum revolver through a friend of a friend, with serial number S201645.

The evening before the crash, before boarding a flight to Reno, Nevada, Gonzales had shown the gun to numerous friends at the airport and told one person that he intended to shoot himself. Gonzales gambled in Reno the night before the fatal flight and told a casino employee that he did not care how much he lost because "it won't make any difference after tomorrow."

Aircraft

The plane, a twin-engine turboprop Fairchild F-27, registration N2770R, was a U.S.-built version of the Fokker F-27 Friendship airliner. It was manufactured in 1959, and had accumulated about 10,250 flight hours up to its final flight, with Pacific Air Lines as the sole owner and operator.

Flight

The F-27 took off from Reno at 5:54 a.m., with 33 passengers aboard, including Gonzales, and a crew of three, bound for San Francisco International Airport, with a scheduled stop in Stockton, California. The crew consisted of Captain Ernest Clark, 52, pilot in command, First Officer Ray Andress, 31, copilot, and Flight Attendant Margaret Schafer, 30.

The plane arrived at Stockton, where two passengers deplaned and ten boarded, bringing the plane's total to 41 passengers. Both deplaning passengers reported that Gonzalez was seated directly behind the cockpit. It was about 6:38 a.m. when Flight 773 lifted off and headed towards San Francisco International.

Murder-suicide
Francisco Paula Gonzales

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At 6:48:15, with the aircraft approximately 10 minutes out of Stockton, the Oakland Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) received a high-pitched, garbled radio message from Flight 773, and the aircraft soon disappeared from the center's radar displays.

With Flight 773 minutes from landing, Gonzales, seated directly behind the cockpit, burst into the cockpit and shot both pilots twice. Gonzales's first bullet hit a tiny section of the frame tubing from Captain Clark's seat. His second bullet killed Clark instantly. He then shot First Officer Andress, critically wounding him. Flying at its assigned altitude of 5,000 feet, Flight 773 went into a steep dive of 2,100 feet per minute at an airspeed of nearly 400 mph. The wounded Andress made a last frantic transmission as he tried to pull the plane out of the dive. The flight data recorder showed a sharp climb back to 3,200 feet. Gonzales most likely shot him again, fatally, before shooting himself, causing the plane to go into a final dive.

After attempting unsuccessfully to contact Flight 773, Oakland ARTCC asked another aircraft in the immediate vicinity, United Air Lines Flight 593, if they had the plane in sight. Flight 593's flight crew responded that they did not see Flight 773, but a minute later they reported: "There's a black, uh, cloud of smoke coming up through the undercast at, uh, three-thirty, four o'clock position right now. Looks like (an) oil or gasoline fire." Oakland ARTCC realized that the smoke spotted by the United air crew was likely caused by the crash of Pacific Air Lines Flight 773.

Flight 773 crashed into a rural hillside in southern Contra Costa County. The plane erupted in flames on impact, and dug a crater into the ground. Flight 773's last radio message, from First Officer Andress, was deciphered through laboratory analysis: "I've been shot! We've been shot! Oh, my God, help!"[2]

The official accident report stated that witnesses along the flight path and near the impact area described "extreme and abrupt changes in altitude of Flight 773 with erratic powerplant sounds" before the plane hit a sloping hillside at a relative angle of 90 degrees.

Investigation

Investigators from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB, a forerunner organization to today's National Transportation Safety Board [NTSB]) found in the mangled wreckage a damaged Smith & Wesson Model 27 .357 Magnum revolver, holding six spent cartridges. The Federal Bureau of Investigation soon joined the CAB in a search for evidence so that the apparent criminal aspects of this case could be pursued. Investigators found that when Gonzales left San Francisco for Reno the day before the fatal flight, he was carrying the .357, and that he had purchased $105,000 worth of life insurance at the airport, payable to his wife.[3] The probable cause stated in the CAB accident report was "the shooting of the captain and first officer by a passenger during flight", and the FBI determined that the suicidal Gonzales was the shooter.

Aftermath

Civil air regulation amendments became effective on August 6, 1964, that required that doors separating the passenger cabin from the crew compartment on all scheduled air carrier and commercial aircraft must be kept locked in flight.[4] An exception to the rule remains during takeoff and landing on certain aircraft, such as the Fairchild F-27, where the cockpit door leads to an emergency passenger exit. The amendments were passed by the Federal Aviation Administration prior to the crash of Flight 773, but had not yet become effective.

See also

References
  1. "Investigations: Death Wish". Time. November 6, 1964. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  2. Pacific Air Lines Flight 773.wmv on YouTube
  3. Derner Jr., Phil. "On this Day in Aviation History:May 7th, 1964". NYC Aviation. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  4. Ranter, Harro. "Criminal Occurrence description". aviation-safety.net. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 20 March 2012.

Further reading
  • Serling, Robert J., Loud and Clear: The Full Answer to Aviation's Vital Question - Are the Jets Really Safe? Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969
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