Incident
On May 7, 1964, Pacific Air Lines Flight 773, a Fairchild F27A Friendship airliner, crashed near San Ramon, California, a suburb in the East Bay east of Oakland. The aircraft was destroyed, and all 44 occupants were killed.
Sequence of Events
During the flight, a passenger named Francisco Paula Gonzales, aged 27, shot both pilots with a handgun. He then turned the gun on himself. The loss of the pilots caused the aircraft to lose controlled flight and crash.
Investigation
The investigation determined that the crash was the result of the passenger's actions. This incident is recorded as the first instance in the United States where an airliner's pilots were shot by a passenger as part of a murder–suicide.