Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771
N350PS, the aircraft involved in the hijacking, pictured in 1986 | |
| Hijacking | |
|---|---|
| Date | December 7, 1987 |
| Summary | Mass murder-suicide; on-board shooting followed by suicide hijacking |
| Site | |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | British Aerospace 146-200A |
| Aircraft name | The Smile of Stockton |
| Operator | Pacific Southwest Airlines |
| IATA flight No. | PS1771 |
| ICAO flight No. | PSA1771 |
| Call sign | PSA 1771 |
| Registration | N350PS |
| Flight origin | Los Angeles International Airport, California, U.S. |
| Destination | San Francisco International Airport, California, U.S. |
| Occupants | 43 (including hijacker) |
| Passengers | 38 (including hijacker) |
| Crew | 5 |
| Fatalities | 43 (including hijacker) |
| Survivors | 0 |
Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco. On December 7, 1987, the British Aerospace 146-200A, registration N350PS, was intentionally crashed in San Luis Obispo County near Cayucos, after being hijacked by a passenger.
All 43 passengers and crew aboard the plane died, five of whom, including the two pilots, were presumably shot dead before the plane crashed. The perpetrator, David Burke, was a disgruntled former employee of USAir, the parent company of Pacific Southwest Airlines. The crash was the second-worst mass murder in Californian history, after the similar crash of Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 in 1964. It was the second fatal crash of PSA, after Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182. The motive for the hijacking and resulting mass murder-suicide was anger towards Burke's former boss, Ray Thompson, who had refused to reinstate Burke after he had been fired for theft. Thompson was on Flight 1771 and was the first victim.