In article <3cb3d55c.55511234@198.164.200.20>,
ve1eo@rac.ca <"Gord Beaman"> wrote:
>Bryan Martin <bryanmmartinNOSPAM@comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>>Yes, several years ago a plane from I believe San Diego to Phoenix was
>>hijacked by a disgruntled ex-employee. He managed to get a gun on board and
>>killed the flight crew and deliberately crashed the airplane and killed
>>everyone on board. It was a DC-9 as I recall, one of the smaller airlines
>>operating in the Southwest.
>
>Dash 8 wasn't it?...

It was a BAe-146, on December 7, 1987. Pacific Southwest Airlines
flight 1771 was enroute from Los Angeles to San Francisco. USAir
employee (PSA was bought by USAir in April 1987) David Burke had
been dismissed from his job that day for stealing $68 from an
employee fund. His supervisor regularly commuted home from LAX
on flight 1771. Burke used his USAir employee identification to
bypass security at the airport and boarded the flight with a
handgun.

After the aircraft reached cruising altitude, he shot his former
supervisor, then made his way to the cockpit and shot the pilot
and copilot. The BAe-146 went into a dive, and Burke apparently
then shot himself (the CVR recorded four gunshots, the last one
after the aircraft entered the dive.) It's not known whether
Burke deliberately put the plane into a dive, or if it went out
of control after the pilots were killed. At an altitude of about
13,000 feet the aircraft reached a speed in excess of Mach 1.2,
and broke up due to aerodynamic stresses. It crashed near San Luis
Obispo, with 44 fatalities.


ljd

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