tonight, terror in the sky over the bay area. we take you back to 1964 1964 and recount the story of the gunman.the strange case of a man with no history of violence who crashed through the cockpit

door and attacked the pilot crew. and the final moments of united flight 693. it's all straight ahead on a second look. hello everyone i'm frank somerville. last week a man tried to get into the cockpit of an airliners bound for san francisco. he wasn't able though to get past the reenforced door and flight attendants and other passengers eventually subdued him. such attacks on airlines and cockpits are not a new thing nearly a century ago. a dispondent man with a shotgun went into the cockpit killing the pilot and co-pilot. bringing the plane crashing down. >> reporter: it was may seven, 1964 just before seven 7:00 in the morning, the flight was on its way to reno from sfo. >> i was just getting ready to

pick the kids from the school. then i heard a loud whine. i saw this big explosion. i said oh my god it's a plane crash. >> reporter: rescue crews arrived but there was no one to rescue. all passengers were killed including pilot ernie clark. >> ernie was the best. everyone wanted to fly and pattern themselves after ernie. he was smooth, methodical with everything he did. >> reporter: so what exactly happened? that's what lead crash investigator was determined to find out. >> the plane actually went in at a pretty steep angle. so as you looked at the accident site you could almost see the outline of an airplane then there was the center where the main cabin was. >> reporter: a few days after the crash, he listened to a garble tape that a cell laboratory has to decipher. it's a final message from co-

pilot ray andres. almost impossible to interpret with the naked year. >> i've been shot. we've been shot. >> do you still have pacific aircraft in sight, over? >> reporter: after a pain staking search through the crash site. a sheriff's deputy found a .357 magnum and traced the name of the owner. >> the investigator was able to track the name of the gun owner through the serial number. eventually we found the hand of

the gun owner. then we could put him on the airplane at that time. >> reporter: authorities linked the hand and the handgun to passenger francisco gonzalez of san francisco. gonzalez had been on the 1960 philipine olympic team but then had financial problems. he was threatening suicide. then put money on aircraft insurance and a handgun. >> some others certainly myself were so angry with the fact that this gentleman who was over there around the bend had the ability to put down a few quarters, a small sum of numbers and get something like $100,000 insurance so that he could commit suicide. >> reporter: the fbi's investigation concluded that after a night of gambling, gonzalez boarded the flight and walk into the cockpit.

he shot pilot first, then co- pilot andres then himself. >> reporter: pilot ernie clark's daughter who became a commercial pilot himself was 15 years old when her father died. she said the result of the investigation put to rest any rumors. >> at the time i was so relieved because i had heard media people saying, captain clark was really distraught. his wife died accidental a year earlier. and i said, oh my god my dad would never do that. >> there was no security about bringing guns on to the airplane. the man apparently had been very depressed. he even told friends he was going to commit suicide. so, it's easy when the accident is over to put all the pieces together. it's not so easy when you're standing there looking at 44 bodies in a hole. >> reporter: after the crash the government required cockpit doors to be locked from the inside. it's a practice that still exists today. although since the september 11th attacks doors are now more

heavily reenforced. >> i always felt that a locked cockpit door was an important thing and i felt it was between me and the passengers in the back and i always felt good about them and i knew it was named after my dad. still to come, nearly a quarter century after a gunman brought a plane down. another man did the same thing. we look at the disgruntled employee who opened fire in the cockpit. and the cockpit recordings from september 11, 2001.

in 1987, pacific southwest airlines flight 1771 disappeared from radar screens as it was flying from los angeles to san francisco. as it turned out, the flight had been brought down in san louis obispo county by a disgruntled employee who had a

gun. david byrd had been recently let go and he took out his anger on his employer who was on board that flight. >> reporter: on december 7, flight 1771 took off for los angeles. it was bound on the most routine kind of flight. a 50 minute commuter run to san francisco. but for the 43 passengers on board it was anything but routine. they all fell victim to a wild moment of murder, revenge and suicide. 42 of the people who died on that flight at the very least deserve an ex an explanation of who killed them and why. david burke smuggled a gun on the plane and subsequently caused it to crash killing everyone on board. according to our source, this is what happened inside the

plane. ray thompson, burke's former boss was sitting on seat 52a. burke gave him a note and burke shot thompson. >> there was gunfire and he was quacking 7700 which is a special code. at that time the controller said, say again. and the captain confirmed he said i have an emergency, gunfire and that was the last communications. >> reporter: after that, the oakland center tried to call the tsa pilot back on, made three or four attempts. and we never heard a response. >> reporter: then he forced a flight attendant to take him into the cockpit. once inside, she said captain someone has a problem. on the recorder a male voice responds, i am the problem.

unknown until now, doug arthur happened to be in the cockpit at the time. according to our source, burke immediately shot the flight attendant. then shot arthur who was strapped down to the jumper seat. then burke shot the pilot and the co-pilot. one of the pilots was still alive. on the flight voice recorder you can hear him straining, groaning trying to pull the plane out of a dive. ten second before impact, a gunshot was heard. investigators believe this was david burke killing himself. back in the cabin it was a hellish nightmare. carts and contents would be flying about as with luggage and anything else not tied down. but the worse thing that would happen to these people in the next 90 second is that experts say they would not have lost consciousness. they would be aware of every

moment of their torment. a psa pilot speculated what it might have been like to be a pilot and be in that plane. >> you know that airplane so low and what it can do is probably sheer terror. because you don't have control over the situation. and that you have to just sit there and watch it. >> i was told that the 13 witnesses we interviewed. eight reported hearing what was loud shrieking noises prior to impact. >> reporter: dropping his plane to 3,000 feet, he described the scene. >> it was an aircraft, it was broken into three main pieces. all of which were engulfed in flames. with all structures on fire it was very evident that there were probably no survivors. >> reporter: emergency vehicles were on the scene in two hours. back in san francisco, people waiting for the routine flight to arrive began to realize

something was wrong when they read the ominous message on the arrival board. a laser was used to map the scattered wreckage. >> the weapon loaned to burke is definitely the weapon that we found here at the scene with the six suspended outside. >> reporter: mid-night thursday, the fbi found burke's hand. also on thursday, the fbi found the airsickness bag with the goodbye message. >> it's addressed to ray, it is unseened. >> reporter: it read, hi ray. i think it's sort of ironical that we ended up like this. i asked for some leniency for my family. remember. well i got none, and you will get none. on friday the fbi confirmed the note was in david burke's handwriting.

>> were david burke still alive, we and the united states attorney's office in los angeles believe that we have more than sufficient probable cause to have charged him with the crimes of crime aboard the aircraft. >> reporter: the crash of flight 1771 did bring about some changes in the airline industry. as a result of that incident, federal law now requires that airlines immediately seize the credentials of any employee who are fired or who quits. and airline employees now have to go through the same security screening as everyone else. the national transportation safety board also noted that u.s. airlines lacked bullet proof doors. the airline did nothing to make those cockpit doors more security until the september 11 attacks. a man with no history of violence attacks an airline flight crew. what doctors discovered when they tried to figure out why he

did it. and coming up, see the cockpit calls from september 11. ♪ you'll run outside

♪ i'll pass you by ♪ ♪ i want to see the sunshine ♪ ♪ take me where you are ♪ take me where you are ♪ afternoon ride ♪ afternoon ride [ male announcer ] now everyone can explore the world from home. get high speed internet from at&t, just $14.95 a month for 12 months with select services. no home phone required.

11 years ago on a flight from mexico to oregon, a missouri man rushed the cockpit of an alaskan airline. after the man was subdued, the plane would make an emergency landing. it would take months but authorities finally figured out why he did it. >> reporter: pass >> reporter: passengers and crew on flight 79 said peter bradley jr. began acts strangely soon after take off. >> he seemed a little off. i mean it was, real strange because i thought he was actually, had to fight the sickness. and he had his shirt off. he's a big guy about 6'5", about 260. >> reporter: passengers said bradley first tried to crash the plane by opening an

emergency door. then witnesses say he turned to the cockpit and crashed through lunging at the pilot and grabbing for the plane's controls. the co-pilot sustained an injury to his hand trying to fight off the intruder with an ax. the wound later required seven stitches. responding to the pilot's call for help, several passengers rushed in. >> when he opened up the cockpit and attacked the pilot. that's when i ran up and basically grabbed a hold of him and yanked him down. >> me and four or five other guys just flew straightforward and grabbed hip and subdued him and one guy cuffed his hands. we jerked him back out of the cabin. >> reporter: when the flight finally landed, relieved passengers were taken off and bradley and the co-pilot were

taken to the hospital. >> and we're going to be able to demonstrate there's not going to be anything like that in the future. >> reporter: the magistrate denied bail and refused to let bradley be handed over to family. the judge ordered him to undergo psychiatric evaluation. >> reporter: they quickly agreed it was a rare medical condition that caused his bizarre behavior. he had a reaction to insephilitis. he had shown conditions before the flight, and the pressurized

plane added to the condition. the egyptians re egyptians rejected that theory and said there must have had to have a problem with the plane itself. the ntsb released its final report in 2002. >> reporter: 30 minutes after egypt air flight 990 departed new york it was lying in pieces on the bottom of the atlantic of nantucket. everyone died when the plane crashed. the boeing had leveled off at 33,000 feet bound for cairo. when the flight data recorder showed unusual activity. in what would be the last two minutes of the flight. >> the first event we note is the auto pilot disconnecting. about eight seconds later, the

airplane appears, the airplane begins what appears to be a controlled decent. >> reporter: someone at the controls then put the plane in a dive. plummeting more than 16,000 feet in 36 second. the plane gained altitude briefly. on the voice recorder the co- pilot could be heard saying, i rely on god. >> in the english language we say, oh god, oh jesus. >> reporter: now the ntsb blames that co-pilot. the pilot returned from the lavatory and tried to pull the plane up. on the recorder, he is heard crying, pull with me. pull with me. but the co-pilot is pushing the controls in the opposite direction according to the data recorder. >> normally in the cockpit the one pilot is flying the airplane and is supposed to fly the airplane. and the other pilot is supposed to handle emergencies and to

take care of the radios. and since we had no broadcast from this airplane i find that unusual. and the fact that both of them were struggling with the controls, that would be unusual too. because the other pilot shouldn't even be on the controls. >> reporter: from the out set, egypt air has defended its staff. >> our pilots are frequently checked. they are checked. physically, psychologically and everything. >> reporter: the airline continues to suspect mechanical problems in the tail. the ntsb said they found no evidence of that. the co-pilot's nephew also rejects the findings. he said the words muttered in the cockpit was not enough. >> he was very happy that he finally would get some rest and

spend some time with his family because he spent his life traveling. >> reporter: the ntsb does not offer a -- the former egypt air pilot tells the l.a. times that the crash was more revenge than suicideful. when we come back on a second look. they took on the 911 hijackers and likely stopped the airliner from hitting the capital. the flight recordings from flight 973, next. from the bay area to chicago midway to fit your schedule. ♪ hey, we're on your schedule, not ours. there will be another one back here in a second, just watch.

what did i tell you -- there's another one. [ ding ]

on september 11, 2001 the passengers of flight 93 bound for san francisco battled and overcame the terrorists who would hijack their flight. the plane went down in shanksville pennsylvania. it wasn't until april of 2006

that the public finally heard the cockpit voice recordings from that flight. >> reporter: may day, may day, get out of here. get out of here, jurors in the trial heard those words today from the pilot of flight 93. then a recording picked up by air traffic controllers believed to be the voice of a hijacker claiming to be the pilot. sounds of chaos, struggle and heroism filled the courtroom. most of what was heard was not released for broadcast only the transcript. it comes from the pilot before

four men hijacked it apparently hoping to crash it into the capital. the hijackers tell passengers to shut up and don't move. then the pleas from this, please, don't hurt me. down, no more. then don't hurt me. down down, shut up. then the words thought to be of a flight attendant. i don't want to die. i don't want to die. then a word in arabic saying, everything is fine. i finished. passengers fight back and approach the cockpit. a hijacker says, they want to get in here. hold from the inside, hold, hold. then they are screaming, passengers attacking a hijacker. then an american voice. in the cockpit, if we don't we will die. another man says, roll it. then a crashing sound apparently the drink cart.

>> you can hear that they are clearly trying to smash something against the cockpit door. then chaos in the cockpit, some shouting to pull levers up. others shutting to pull down. then over and over, allah is the greatest, allah is the greatest. then silence. flight 93 crashed into a field in pennsylvania. peterson died his parents in the flight. >> what was going through my heart is this is an example of ordinary citizens stepping up to the plate in a moment's notice and protecting the united states capital from a terrorist attack. >> reporter: just before closing their case. prosecutors played one last tape. a voice mail from a flight 93 flight attendant to her husband. crying, cc lisle says her plane has been hijacked. she knows about the world trade towers. then quote, i hope to be able to see your face again baby.

i love you. bye. >> and that's it for this week's second look. i'm frank somerville. we'll see you again next week.