If you look at the history of air travel, there are dates that act as scars. December 7, 1987, is one of them. For most people today, Pacific Southwest Airlines 1771 is a footnote in a Wikipedia list of aviation disasters, but for those who lived through the era of "open" airports, it was the moment the illusion of safety shattered. It wasn't a mechanical failure. It wasn't pilot error. It was something much more personal and, frankly, much more terrifying.
A disgruntled former employee named David Burke boarded a British Aerospace 146-200 with a loaded .44 Magnum.
He didn't just want to die. He wanted to take his boss with him. In the process, he took 42 other lives.
The story of PSA Flight 1771 is often buried under the weight of 9/11 or the Lockerbie bombing, but it's the specific reason why airline employees today have to go through the same metal detectors you do. Back then? If you had a badge, you basically walked right past security. No questions asked. No bags checked. It was a loophole big enough to fly a plane through, and Burke knew it.
The Grudge That Brought Down a Jet
David Burke was a high-flyer at USAir (which had recently acquired PSA) who got caught stealing $69 in cocktail receipts. It sounds trivial, right? To Burke, it was the end of the world. He was fired by his supervisor, Raymond Thomson. Burke tried to get his job back, pleaded his case, but Thomson stood firm.
Burke wasn't a man who handled rejection well.
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He bought a ticket on PSA Flight 1771 from Los Angeles to San Francisco because he knew Thomson would be on that specific flight for his daily commute. Before he boarded, he used his credentials—which he hadn't surrendered yet—to bypass the security checkpoints at LAX. He was carrying a massive Smith & Wesson Model 29.
You've probably seen that gun in Dirty Harry. It's a hand cannon. And he walked right onto a commercial flight with it tucked away.
Chaos at 22,000 Feet
The flight was routine for the first half-hour. People were probably reading newspapers or sipping coffee. Then, somewhere over Paso Robles, the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) picked up the sound of two shots.
Burke had entered the cabin and found Thomson. He supposedly handed him an air sickness bag with a note written on it. The note was recovered later, and it’s haunting. It basically said that since Burke didn't get leniency, Thomson wouldn't get any either.
He shot Thomson first.
Then a flight attendant, Deborah Neil, ran to the cockpit. "We have a problem," she told the pilots. Before they could even react, Burke was behind her. "I'm the problem," he reportedly said. He shot her. He shot the pilots. Then, in a final act of pure, senseless spite, the flight data recorder showed he pushed the control column forward.
The plane didn't just fall. It dived.
The Physics of a 700 MPH Impact
The BAe 146 is a sturdy plane, often called the "Whisperjet" because it’s so quiet. But it wasn't designed for a vertical supersonic dive. As the plane screamed toward the ground in San Luis Obispo County, it actually exceeded the speed of sound.
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It hit a hillside at a cattle ranch.
The impact was so violent that the largest piece of the aircraft found was about the size of a briefcase. Everything else was pulverized. Investigators from the NTSB and the FBI had to sift through what looked like a trash heap, but was actually the remains of a jetliner. They found the .44 Magnum with six spent casings. They found the note on the air sickness bag.
They even found a finger stuck in the trigger guard of the pistol.
The sheer force of PSA Flight 1771 hitting the earth was so intense that it left a crater only two feet deep but packed the debris so tightly into the soil that it took weeks to excavate. It’s hard to wrap your head around that kind of kinetic energy.
Why This Wasn't Just "Another Crash"
Most air disasters lead to better bolts or better engines. This one led to a total overhaul of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules regarding airport personnel.
Before 1987, there was this "gentleman’s agreement" in the industry. Pilots, flight attendants, and ground crew were the "good guys." They were part of the system, so the system trusted them. After PSA 1771, the FAA realized that a badge doesn't make you a saint.
- Rule Change 1: All airline employees were now required to undergo the same security screening as passengers.
- Rule Change 2: Airlines were forced to immediately collect ID badges and keys from terminated employees.
- Rule Change 3: The "two-person rule" for cockpits began to be taken much more seriously, though it wouldn't be fully solidified in the way we see it today until much later.
Honestly, it’s frustrating that it took 43 deaths to realize that a fired employee with a grudge and a gun is a security risk. But that’s how aviation safety works—it's written in blood.
The Legacy of the "Whisperjet" Tragedy
When you go through TSA today and you see a pilot in a sharp uniform taking off his shoes and putting his bag through the X-ray, you're looking at the legacy of David Burke.
It’s a grim reminder that the biggest threat to a flight isn't always a foreign terrorist or a faulty wing spar. Sometimes, it’s the guy who worked in the cubicle next to yours. The PSA 1771 crash forced the industry to look inward. It stopped being about "us vs. them" and started being about universal protocol.
There are still debates about this, of course. Some argue that the "insider threat" is still the hardest thing to guard against. You can scan for metal, but you can’t scan for a broken psyche. Still, the physical barriers put in place after 1987 made it infinitely harder for a repeat of this specific tragedy.
What You Should Know Now
If you’re interested in the history of flight safety, PSA 1771 is a mandatory case study. It’s the bridge between the "Wild West" era of flying and the highly regulated environment we have now.
- Check the NTSB Archives: If you have the stomach for it, the NTSB reports on the impact speeds are a masterclass in forensic engineering.
- Visit the Memorial: There is a memorial for the victims at the Garden of Angels in Los Osos. It’s a quiet, somber place that puts the human cost in perspective.
- Understand Employee Screening: Next time you hear someone complain about security lines, remember that these rules exist because of a $69 theft that spiraled into a mass murder.
Aviation is safer today not because we’ve mastered the sky, but because we’ve learned—painfully—to account for the darkness in human nature. PSA 1771 was a hard lesson, but it’s one the industry has never forgotten.