Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 was a Fairchild F27A Friendship airliner that crashed<!-- at 6:49&nbsp;a.m.--> on May 7, 1964, near San Ramon, California, a suburb in the East Bay, east of Oakland. 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 murder–suicide. Francisco Paula Gonzales, 27, shot both pilots before turning the gun on himself, causing the plane to crash, killing all 44 aboard.

, the crash of Flight 773 remains the worst incident of mass murder in modern California history, one death more than the subsequent Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 hijacking in&nbsp;1987.

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 had competed in the 1960 Summer Olympics for the Philippines as a sailor, and had then emigrated to the United States. 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." holding six spent cartridges. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) soon joined the CAB in a search for evidence so that the apparent criminal aspects of the 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 San Francisco airport, payable to his wife. 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. 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

  • Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771
  • Federal Express Flight 705
  • Accidents and incidents involving the Fokker F27 family
  • Aviation safety
  • List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
  • List of aviation incidents involving terrorism
  • List of homicides in California

References

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
  • - Clipping at Newspapers.com.
  • "Death Wish", Time, November 6, 1964
  • NTSB - brief incident summary
  • Photograph of a Pacific Air Lines F-27, similar to the one that crashed.
  • Photograph of an open F-27 cargo door, located between the cockpit and passenger cabin, that also served as an emergency exit.
  • Civil Aeronautics Board Aircraft Accident Report - Download link