On this day, May 7, in 1964, a member of the 1960 Philippine Olympic sailing team shot the pilots of a commercial airliner, plunging the plane to its destruction in Northern California, killing all 44 aboard.
Francisco Gonzales, 27, was depressed over money and marital problems. As the plane from Reno began its descent into to San Francisco, Gonzales pulled a revolver, entered the cockpit and shot the captain in the head.
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“Skipper dead,” the first officer radioed. “[Pilot’s] been shot. Trying to help.”
Gonzales then shot the co-pilot, then himself. The twin-engine plane went into a high-speed descent, crashing into a hill and exploding near San Ramon.
Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 was likely the first time in the United States that a passenger shot an airliner’s pilots as part of a mass murder-suicide.
