All language subtitles for Air.Disasters.S03E03.Im.the.Problem.1080p.PMTP.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-maldini_track3_[eng]

A passenger plane
is obliterated

in the California hills.

There were no wings,
no fuselage.

There was no tail section.

There were no aircraft seats.

Hardened steel
is ripped to pieces.

This was the worst damage
I've ever seen.

The wreckage
paints a grim picture

of the final moments of Pacific
Southwest Airlines flight 1771.

The plane reached
impossibly high speeds.

They told us that

it actually broke
the sound barrier.

Passengers
experienced crippling G-forces.

We assessed the impact
force as around 5,000 GS.

It would have been
a horrifying experience,

the final few seconds
of their lives.

Whatever brought down
flight 1771,

investigators are certain
of one thing--

it was not an accident.

Ladies and gentlemen,

we are starting our approach.

We lost both engines!

Put the mask over your nose.

Emergency descent.

Mayday, mayday.

Brace for impact!

I think I lost one.

Investigation starting...

He's gonna crash!

Los Angeles
International Airport,

one of the busiest
in the world.

Every year, 40 million
passengers arrive and depart

through LAX.

At terminal one,

a group of passengers and crew
bound for San Francisco

are making their way
through security.

A short while later,

they board Pacific Southwest
Airlines flight 1771.

Pacific Southwest really was a,

what we'd call a large regional
airline at the time.

Could you set me up with
a scotch on your way back?

They had service
in about 30 cities

all over mostly the Western part
of the United States.

The flight from
Los Angeles to San Francisco

is one of the most popular
routes at Pacific Southwest,

also known as PSA.

Among the 38 passengers
are several PSA employees,

including the airline's
chief pilot.

It's very common
for airline employees

to commute between cities
for work.

And so as people would
take a bus to work,

many airline employees
take a plane to work.

Captain Gregg Lindamood

has been
flying with PSA for 14 years.

The father of three is also
a decorated combat veteran.

-Brakes.
-Brakes set.

Flaps up.

Spoilers retracted.

First officer
James Nunn

only joined the airline
the previous spring.

He's also logged thousands
of hours in the cockpit.

Thrust levers.

Today,
they're piloting

a British-built BAE-146
commuter jet.

With quiet turbofan engines,

it's designed for
short haul flights

over densely populated areas.

The flight to San Francisco

will take just over an hour.

So do you know what you're
getting the boys for Christmas?

Well, it's gonna be Nintendo,

and with what it costs,
I think they can both share it.

Anything to drink, guys?

No, I'm fine, thanks.

Okay, just holler
if you change your mind.

Flight 1771 is
cruising at 22,000 feet

above the California
Countryside.

Can you ask them
how it's been?

Just over halfway
through the flight,

captain Lindamood worries
about the mild turbulence.

Center, PSA 1771.
Any reports on the ride ahead?

We've had a little
continuous, light chop.

PSA, this is
Rocky Mountain Center.

It's not too bad.

Oh, my god,
that was a gun.

The crew now has
a much bigger problem

on its hands.

Squawk 77, Squawk 77.

We've had a gun fired
on board the aircraft.

Do you want
to go to Monterey?

Could you make it, sir?

Moments later,

flight 1771 falls
into a steep dive.

Witnesses caught
a brief glimpse of the aircraft

as it was plummeting down
from the sky.

It was going at
a high rate of speed.

Looked like a dart
just diving to the ground.

Flight 1771 crashes
into an isolated hill

170 miles northwest
of Los Angeles.

Police get to the crash site,

and find a 33-ton airliner
obliterated.

There were no wings.

There were no fuselage.

There was no,
there was no tail section.

There were no aircraft seats.

There was just papers,
papers everywhere,

and the strong smell
of aviation fuel.

It doesn't take long
for sheriff Steve Bolts

to reach a grim conclusion.

No one has survived the crash.

We're making
a frantic search

throughout
this remote cow pasture

looking for survivors,

and we can't even find
deceased human beings,

much less human beings
that had survived.

Most catastrophic
aircraft accidents

happen on takeoff or landing.

A shallow impact angle
can sometimes leave

large sections of
the plane intact,

giving passengers and crew
a chance at survival.

The 43 people aboard flight 1771
had no chance at all.

This is one of the worst air
disasters in California history.

Come on up here, guys.

The day after the
crash, investigators from both

the National Transportation
Safety Board and the FBI

are on the scene.

You ever seen
anything like this?

This is gonna be
a long day, guys.

We knew that
gunshots had been heard

by the air traffic controllers.

Squawk 77, squawk 77.

We've had a gun fired
on board the aircraft.

If the reports of
gunshots were accurate,

then I realized immediately

that we had crime
aboard an aircraft,

for which the FBI had
primary jurisdiction.

But the reports
may not be accurate.

The pilots and controllers
may have been mistaken.

Even though speculation

about the gunman's identity
is widespread,

it's up to the NTSB to determine
exactly what happened

on flight 1771.

It should be
somewhere in here.

One of the things
you have to avoid

in an accident investigation
is preconceived notions.

For example, most of us
never turn on the radio,

never watch television
on the way to the scene,

because, even though you might
not consciously be aware of it,

you can get front loaded
with information,

and when you get there,

you may subconsciously start
looking for things

to substantiate that background.

So you try to arrive on scene
with a totally objective view

of what's going on.

While NTSB
investigators try to determine

the cause of the crash,

law enforcement agents have
questions of their own.

It's establishing
who had motive,

establishing who had access,

establishing who was
the intended victim.

Right there.

They should be somewhere
right in there.

The FBI is searching
for evidence of a crime--

the NTSB for clues
about the crash.

If they can recover both the
black boxes, they may find both.

With the total
destruction of the aircraft,

I mean, you had limited
amounts of information

that you could gather
from the wreckage.

At this point,
the most important thing

is to get
the cockpit voice recorder

and get away from
the speculation

and see what the cockpit voice
recorder tells us factually.

The flight recorders
tell the tale

of what happens to the aircraft.

They're very important in
reconstructing the events

that brought the airplane down.

The impact comes
in this way, then the tail...

They should be
somewhere in here.

I think that's it.

After hours of searching

through the shattered remains,

the effort finally pays off.

They recover the plane's
two black boxes.

The first recorder
that was recovered

was the cockpit voice recorder,

and that was recognized
by its orange cover,

and all that was still,
although badly mangled,

was still recognizable
as a recorder.

The second black box
has suffered

even heavier damage.

The flight data recorder
captures critical information

about the aircraft's
performance.

What a mess.

What a mess.

It had been
so badly mangled,

it wasn't recognizable as
a flight data recorder.

Both recorders will
be sent to the NTSB laboratory

in Washington.

It is far from certain

whether the data they hold
can be successfully retrieved.

Without it,
investigators may never know

what happened on flight 1771.

That's about
the first thing you do

when you get on scene--
find the cockpit voice recorder.

You can't over emphasize how
important that was in this case,

because we had no airframe left
to work with.

We really had no wreckage,
in the normal sense of the word.

At the NTSB
laboratory in Washington,

Dennis Grossi examines

flight 1771's badly damaged
cockpit voice recorder.

The case itself
was basically crushed.

It was bent in like
somebody grabbed it

and pushed it together
like that.

And this is hardened steel.

And we assessed the impact force
as around 5,000 GS,

just based on the deformation
of the crash enclosure.

The recorder, the
aircraft, and everyone on board

suffered an impact force 5,000
times the force of gravity.

The world's best fighter pilots

can handle a sustained force
of nine GS.

In a crash, the human body
can sometimes survive 100 GS

for a split second.

A force 50 times as strong
is difficult to comprehend.

Dennis Grossi knows
the immense impact

may have ruined any chance
of hearing the last words

from the cockpit of flight 1771.

No crash
investigation is routine,

but among the jigsaw puzzle
of pieces from flight 1771,

investigators are looking for
something very different--

perhaps a gun.

Finding the weapon
could help the FBI identify

who might have fired shots
on board flight 1771.

But for the NTSB, gunfire alone
does not explain this accident.

A bullet should not bring down
a modern commercial jet.

There's a lot of misconception

about decompression
and about whether or not,

for example, a single shot
could bring down an aircraft.

And if it's simply a shot
through the fuselage

of the aircraft,
the answer would be no.

It takes a much
larger hole in the fuselage

for there to be
an explosive decompression,

the kind of hole that led to one
of the deadliest air disasters

of all time.

In 1974,

a faulty cargo door blew off
Turkish Airlines flight 981.

The decompression caused
the cabin floor to collapse,

severing
the flight control cables.

The crash killed
all 346 people on board.

The aircraft would
normally not come down

just from a bullet hole
with no other implications.

It just wouldn't be enough

to cause an explosive
decompression,

which is what you almost have to
have to bring the aircraft down.

If a gunshot didn't
bring the plane down,

then investigators
need to find out what did.

At the NTSB lab in Washington,

work to recover flight 1771's
cockpit voice recording

has produced
a surprising result.

Despite suffering
huge impact forces,

the audiotape is still intact.

All right,
let's give it a listen.

The first 28 minutes
of the tape

reveal a routine flight.

It's gonna be Nintendo.

The crew was
trying to find out

when the turbulence they had
been flying through would end.

Can you ask them
how it's been?

Center, PSA 1771.
Any reports on the ride ahead?

We've had a little
continuous, light chop.

PSA, this is
Rocky Mountain Center.

It's not too bad.

We hear
the flight crew talk,

you know, do their
normal procedures.

But in the final two minutes,

events take a chilling turn.

Sure sounds like a gunshot.

And then all of a sudden,

they hear, and we hear,
on the recording this gunshot.

The tape confirms
what the pilots had reported--

two gunshots.

- God, that was a gun.
- Yeah, I know.

Squawk 77, squawk 77.

We've had a gun fired
on board the aircraft.

It was actually
a very sobering moment,

because we realized that
we were listening

to two people communicating
with each other,

the pilot and the co-pilot,

in a very routine flight

that suddenly became
anything but routine.

It was something that one
doesn't quickly forget.

Investigators listen

as the situation becomes
increasingly disturbing.

The door to
the cockpit was heard to open,

and a female voice,
presumably the flight attendant,

was heard to say in a voice
that was filled with alarm...

There's a problem, captain!

And we heard a voice,

a male voice, which we presumed
to be the captain,

saying, "what's the nature
of the problem?"

-What's the problem?
-

I'm the problem.

Investigators
now know for certain

that the killer was a man, and
that he shot the flight crew.

It's always startling

when you hear something
like that,

when you hear
the commission of a murder.

As accident investigators,
you just don't hear that.

This was a very unusual
recording.

A flight attendant
and both pilots are shot.

That's five shots so far.

And then we could hear
the cockpit door shut again,

and another final shot,
the sixth shot.

Before the tape ends,

they hear one last
ominous sound.

The plane's in a dive.

The engines are over-revving.

Within about five seconds,

we picked up what's called
windscreen noise.

In other words,

you could tell that
the aircraft was accelerating.

That noise
increased in its pitch.

We learned, of course,

that it was going into a dive
at that point.

65 seconds after
the murder of its crew,

flight 1771 smashes into
the California hills.

It helped us to understand

what we were investigating,

the heinousness of the crime
that we were investigating.

The CVR recording changes

the NTSB's role in the case.

Let me know
if I can help.

It just confirms that
this wasn't an accident,

that it was, in fact, a crime,

and the FBI would be taking over
the investigation

from here on out.

The FBI, bear in mind,
knows how to investigate crime.

They don't necessarily know
how to investigate

an aircraft accident,
so we would go ahead

and do our normal
investigative procedures

and make that information
available to the FBI.

The FBI is
investigating a murder.

But solving it is now just
one of their priorities.

- What's the problem?
- I'm the problem.

The CVR recording
has highlighted

another pressing issue.

Somehow someone
managed to get a gun

on that plane.

A weapon was smuggled
through LAX,

one of the world's
busiest airports.

Investigators wonder
how the shooter

managed to evade
airport security.

Let's find out
how that guy got on the plane,

all right?

If the FBI can't
find answers soon,

more lives could be at risk.

Two days after the downing
of flight 1771.

Investigators are still combing
through the wreckage

for a piece of evidence
rarely found at a crash site...

A murder weapon.

That's a hydraulic line,

probably from the main gear.

The search for the gun
was very frustrating,

because we knew that played
a major role

in what had happened.

We needed to know for sure
that the gun was there.

I mean, it's a supposition,
a pretty good supposition

that there's a gun involved.

We weren't sure
that we would succeed,

because the field of debris
was so wide

and the impact had
reduced the airplane

to so many small pieces.

While the search for
the gun continues in California,

NTSB investigators in Washington
try to determine

what caused flight 1771
to go into a sudden dive

after the crew was shot.

Dennis Grossi believes
the answer may lie

in the shattered remains of the
FDR, the flight data recorder.

The internal magazine
that held the tape

was the only part that
was actually recovered.

The rest was not recovered.

Worse still,

almost all the tape
that records data is gone,

torn from the machine when
it slammed into the ground.

This was the worst
damage I've ever seen.

Grossi examines
a critical part of the recorder,

the tape heads that lay down
data onto the magnetic tape.

He finds a tiny piece of
recording tape has survived.

The magazine
didn't survive,

and the tape itself
was destroyed

except for about a six- to
eight-inch piece of tape

that ran around the
recording heads and the capstan.

With such a short
piece of tape,

it's doubtful there will be any
useful information on it at all.

We worked real hard at
trying to get all the data

that we could off of that
little piece of tape.

Investigators in
California finally find

what they've been hunting for...

The barrel of a gun.

The gun was found
by one of the FBI agents

pretty much in the middle of
where the aircraft impacted.

We were very, very
fortunate when we found the gun.

It was an unbelievable
stroke of luck.

It's not just any gun.

It's a .44 caliber magnum.

The .44 magnum was considered

the most powerful handgun
that you can have.

But the barrel alone
isn't enough.

They need the rest
of the weapon.

Fortunately, they find it...

The cylinder with
six spent cartridges.

Its frame was very
powerfully constructed,

so for it to tear the barrel off

just suggests the power
of that crash impact.

The shattered pistol
leads to a morbid discovery.

When we found
what was left of the gun,

there was a portion of
the finger between the trigger

and the trigger guard.

That went back to the FBI lab
in Quantico, Virginia.

Lab analysis may help
solve a mystery

that hangs over
the entire investigation.

The FBI has a weapon,
a crime scene,

and 42 murder victims.

What's missing is proof
of the identity

of the 43rd person on board--
the killer.

We, in our investigation today

here at the site
have located a weapon,

and that weapon is
going to be examined,

and, of course, any connection
between it and the crime

will be more fully developed.

We needed to determine a motive

for why someone
would do such a thing.

Somebody would have had
to fire those gunshots,

and there had to be
a reason for it.

It's part of
a seat and part of the frame.

Really, as far as
the investigation on scene,

it's totally NTSB as far as the
kicking the tin, if you will.

But we were able to answer
questions that might arise

from the FBI investigators
on the scene.

As I say, they don't have
the expertise

to know what to look for,

but from the criminal aspects
of it,

they certainly know
what to ask about.

At the crash site,

the NTSB has recovered
a piece of wreckage

that could help explain
what happened on flight 1771--

a fragment of a passenger seat.

We actually found a seat

that had a bullet hole in it.

If they can determine

exactly where
the seat was located,

then PSA's passenger
seating records

could give investigators

the name of another
one of the victims shot

before the plane went down.

Dennis Grossi has
done all he can

to salvage data from
the small fragment of tape

recovered from
the flight data recorder.

I was able to decode
that little strip of tape,

and I got the last seconds.

It does contain data,
but only six seconds' worth.

Investigators learn that
in its final moments,

the aircraft was
operating normally

with no mechanical problems,

except for one thing.

Someone had pushed
the control column forward,

forcing the plane
into a steep dive.

The aircraft accelerated
to the speed of sound.

It went from 22,000 feet

with cruise power
on all four engines.

Investigators now
understand why

only very small pieces
of wreckage were found

at the crash site.

When the aircraft hit
at such a high speed,

it impacted and basically
compressed the earth,

and then, then it released,

and it blew everything
back out of the hole.

The heavy impact
propelled some debris

straight back into the air

before it could be singed
by the explosion.

All the light material,

all of the paper
on the aircraft,

any of the insulation material
on the aircraft,

all that light stuff got
blown up into the air

and then the wind carried it
for, I believe, miles.

The fact that
the plane was forced into a dive

explains why PSA 1771
crashed so quickly.

It also adds even
greater urgency

to the FBI investigation.

Since it was almost certainly

the killer's hand
on the controls,

this is now the worst mass
murder in California history.

But investigators still don't
have enough evidence

to be certain
who the killer was,

nor whom he was trying to kill.

Was it the work of a madman who
wanted to commit mass murder?

Or did the killer target
one particular passenger

and coldly sacrifice
everyone else on board?

The FBI investigation
into the onboard shooting

and fatal crash
of PSA flight 1771

has uncovered a lapse
in security at LAX.

It may explain how a gun was
smuggled onto the aircraft.

Any number of people
in the airport

could bypass the security
screening that was going on.

Agent Bretzing learns
that airline employees

with valid identification

are allowed to bypass
security at LAX.

What they had set up
is a bypass for crew members

and airport employees,

actually anybody that
had the proper badge.

You would show your badge, and
they would allow you to bypass

both the metal detector
and the x-ray unit.

It was a big loophole.

Bretzing knows
the killer was a man.

And from flight 1771's
passenger manifest,

he can see that there were
four male passengers

who worked for either
Pacific Southwest

or its parent airline, U.S. Air.

It's one of these guys.

We suppose that
he did, in fact, bypass security

carrying the weapon.

Investigators need
to prove conclusively

who smuggled the gun on board.

At the FBI laboratory,

forensic specialists
analyze the piece of skin

found in the trigger guard.

A technician is able
to get a fingerprint

from the skin fragment.

In search of a match,

he compares the print
to those on file

for the four male passengers who
could have bypassed security.

And he finds a match.

There was enough
of the forefinger

that they were able to peel open
and then match it.

Just days after
the crash that claimed 43 lives,

the FBI has positively
identified the killer.

That was a key element
in the investigation.

His name is David Burke.

David Burke
cleaned the airline.

He was one of those employees
who would go in after it landed

and help clean up the inside.

Investigators now
know David Burke smuggled a gun

on board flight 1771.

What they now need to explain
is why.

A motive gives you
understanding.

It helps to develop
a full mosaic of the crime.

Knowing the motive,

you're able to conclusively
determine what happened.

Day three at the crash site.

Still sifting through
the strewn remains of the plane,

investigators uncover a bizarre
but telling piece of evidence,

one that points directly
to the motive

behind David Burke's crime.

During the search,

one of our people found
an airsickness bag,

and knew immediately

that it was a pertinent piece
to the puzzle.

Because he pushed the
plane into such a steep dive...

Burke unwittingly ensured

that the vital clue
could be uncovered.

The airsickness bag
had a very ominous message

penned on it.

Burke had written the
unsigned note during the flight.

He expressed a grudge
against a man called "Ray."

"Hi, Ray."

"I think it's sort of ironical
that we end up like this."

"I asked for some leniency
for my family, remember?"

Well, I got none,
and you'll get none."

that was the message
that we recovered

from that airsickness bag.

The airsickness bag
is the conclusive clue

they've been searching for,

the clue that establishes
David Burke's motive.

The "Ray" in the note
is identified as

airline station manager
Ray Thomson.

He worked for PSA's
Parent Company, U.S. Air.

He was also David Burke's
former boss.

Ray Thomson
was the supervisor.

By now,
Bretzing has also learned

that burke had
a troubled history,

both with the company
and with the law.

Burke had worked for
U.S. Air for 14 years,

most of them at the airport
in Rochester, New York.

There was allegations
of criminal activity

when he was back in Rochester.

Burke was someone
they had watched carefully

for narcotic trafficking
and larceny.

Allegations that
burke smuggled cocaine

on commercial flights
were never proven.

Well, basically,

he just apparently stayed
one step ahead of us,

but the bottom line is
that he wasn't charged.

He moved to the west coast,

presumably to kind of get away
from the heat, if you would.

But three weeks
before the crash,

burke ran into more trouble.

He was fired from the company
after being caught on tape

helping himself to
the in-flight bar proceeds.

He had stolen
some money from the fund

that the flight attendants use
when they're making change,

and he had stolen
what amounted to $69.

And this was the straw
that broke the camel's back.

Three weeks after being fired,

Burke was given an opportunity
to appeal.

Mr. Burke had been terminated

several weeks prior
to the flight.

Thanks for coming in, David.

He then came back
for an appeal hearing

on the day of the flight.

I've reviewed your file.

He was terminated
by Ray Thomson.

Your appeal, it's been denied.

Under intense
financial pressure,

Burke was near the end
of his rope.

Why you got
to be such a jerk?

That termination
interview was not a placid one.

My decision's final, Mr. Burke.

Thank you very much.

As he left Thomson's office,

Burke made a remark that
hinted at plans for revenge.

The secretary had said,

"David, I hope you
have a nice day."

and David Burke, the suspect,
paused at the door,

turned to her and said...

Oh, I plan to have
a very nice day.

When he was fired,
he still had his credentials.

You got to remember,
this was 1987.

Security was a whole lot
different than it is now.

What have you got there?

Investigators now know that

in the days leading up
to the crash,

David Burke went from
aggrieved ex-employee

to a man coldly planning murder.

Now they need to find out
all they can

about his movements
on the day of the crash.

What can you tell me
about David Burke?

After his meeting
with Thomson's,

he went to his locker,
possibly to get the gun.

But he went to his
locker the day of that flight

prior to the flight.

Whether he retrieved his gun
from the locker or not,

we are not sure.

Instead of returning
to the office,

Burke decided to buy a ticket
for flight 1771,

a flight he knew
Ray Thomson would be on.

Ray Thomson
lived in San Francisco,

and he flew regularly
on that flight

to return to San Francisco
at the end of the day.

It was common knowledge
among the employees

that Ray Thomson would be
on that, on that flight.

Why Burke opted
to kill so many others

along with his former boss

is a question that defies
rational explanation.

The average person
certainly would not act

with the rage and the vengeance
that had to consume David Burke

prior to this act.

One can only imagine that

there must have been something
else wrong with David Burke.

He just decided to
take it out as an act of revenge

against a company,

and I don't know that
there's any other motivation

we can come up with.

It's clear
Burke's attack on flight 1771

was meticulously planned.

But exactly how events unfolded
once his rampage began

is still uncertain.

NTSB investigators have provided
a big piece of the puzzle.

They've been able to match up

the bullet-punctured
seat fragment

with an exact onboard location--
row four, seat C.

Records show that on flight 1771
that seat was unoccupied.

But the seat directly in front
of that empty seat

was occupied--

by Ray Thomson.

The finding points
to the sheer power

of Burke's .44 caliber handgun.

His first two shots pierced
not one, but two airline seats.

The bullet hole
would have been made

as the bullet passed
through Ray Thomson

and then entered that seat
and left a bullet hole there.

They now know that
Burke shot at least four people

during his rage-filled assault
on flight 1771--

Ray Thomson and
three crew members.

That accounts for five shots.

But investigators heard
six shots on the tape.

They must account for them all.

The gunshot sounds
were picked up

by a microphone in the cockpit.

By comparing
the sound pattern of each shot,

investigators can determine if
they were fired in the cockpit

or the passenger cabin.

The shots that were
fired in the plane,

not in the cockpit,
but in the plane,

were distinct but muffled.

Other shots were
louder and clearer,

indicating they were fired
closer to the CVR microphone.

The shots that were
fired in the cockpit

-were very loud.
-

We had three shots

that were fired
outside the cockpit

and three shots that were fired
inside the cockpit.

Investigators don't know

who was shot
with the final bullet,

just that it was fired
in the cabin.

It's enough for them to finally
piece together a picture

of the horrific final moments
on board PSA's 1771.

What the hell?

You can imagine what
Ray Thomson must have thought

as this person whom he had just
terminated a few hours before

walks past him in the airline,
hands him this note,

and then probably goes
into the men's room,

and he's reading this note
with its ominous message.

Next, they hear the sound

of a lavatory door opening.

So we're assuming
that he handed Ray the note,

went into the restroom
where he took out the gun,

came back out,

we heard the door close again
just before the shots.

- Ray!
-

Ray Thomson probably
has the most merciful

of all the deaths on that plane.

In less than a minute,

a routine flight
has become a nightmare.

There's a problem, captain.

What's the problem?

He was very careful.

He had done the planning
thus far fairly well,

and we believe he followed
through with that plan.

- I'm the problem.
-

It wouldn't take much
knowledge or experience

on a passenger part to know that
they were in deep, deep trouble.

-There's a problem, captain.
-

After shooting
his former boss...

...and three crew members,

David Burke pushed flight 1771
into a dive

and left the cockpit.

The airline's chief pilot was
now the only person on board

who could pull the plane
out of the dive.

An off-duty pilot may
have been moving himself forward

to try to render whatever
assistance he could

once he realized something
drastic was happening.

What the hell are you doing?

You got to let me in there.

Don't do this. Come on!

But Burke had
one bullet left.

What the hell
are you doing?

That may have
accounted for the sixth shot.

There are some who speculate

that David Burke was
taking his own life.

The evidence suggests otherwise.

Had David Burke been
taking his own life,

the gun would have fallen
from his hand

after he had shot himself.

But since a fragment
of Burke's fingertip

was recovered from
the trigger guard,

Bretzing reasons that the killer
was alive,

holding onto the gun,
until the very moment of impact.

Alarms were sounding
in the cockpit.

There was increased noise
of the plane plummeting.

And just before impact,
it became silent.

They tell us that it actually
broke the sound barrier.

Of course, it would have been
a horrifying experience,

the final few seconds
of their lives.

One man's rage meant
two minutes of pure terror

for 42 people.

The FBI believes
one man was responsible

for the crash of PSA's flight
1771

in the hills of
San Luis Obispo County,

in which all 43 on board
were killed.

With all of the evidence

that we have recovered here

that we would have
more than sufficient

to charge David Burke

with the violation of
the air piracy statute.

The unprecedented
crime is solved.

But aviation authorities are
left with a troubling question--

could it happen again?

The tragedy of flight 1771
provoked action

from the federal aviation
administration.

The body that regulates
the airline industry

took urgent measures
to tighten security.

The FAA came out and
canceled the bypass authority,

so therefore air crews
and employees

would have to go through
the normal screening,

as any passenger would.

Now it's required that

any employee that
leaves an airline,

whether they've been fired
or quit or retired or whatever,

must turn their credentials in
immediately.

Getting on an aircraft
with a gun now,

I won't say that
it's impossible,

but it's next to impossible.

But the new measures
would not prevent

the world's deadliest
hijacking incident.

The 9/11 attacks would usher in

sweeping new airline
security procedures.

After 9/11,

several security gaps
were certainly plugged.

There are now
federal air marshals on board

many domestic U.S. Flights.

These are armed officers
that are on flights

in plain clothes.

Cockpit doors have
been reinforced with Kevlar,

and they stay locked
throughout all flights.

The doors are built

so that they're very hard
to get through.

They're ballistically sound.

If David Burke was
on a plane today,

when he got to the cockpit,

he couldn't have gotten in
with the weapon he had,

so he would have been able to

still injure or kill people
in the back,

but he could not have
brought the plane down.

Finally,
many domestic airline pilots

are now allowed
to carry firearms.

All of these measures
have made flying safer,

but nothing can completely
eliminate the risk

of another David Burke.

Well, in my view,

aviation security has been
heightened tremendously.

But we still have a ways to go,

and aviation will
always be a target.