Note of Doom Written by Burke, FBI Says

FBI handwriting experts confirmed Friday that the note of doom penned on an airsickness bag found amid the wreckage of Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 was written by David A. Burke, who investigators have concluded caused the crash.

The crash near Paso Robles on Monday, which claimed the lives of all 43 aboard the Los Angeles-to-San Francisco shuttle, may rank as the second worst mass murder in U.S. history.

PSA held a memorial service for some of the victims Friday as about 100 searchers continued to collect the fragmented wreckage and human remains from the impact crater at the crash site in the rugged coastal backcountry of San Luis Obispo County.

Field Work Concluded

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is responsible for the aeronautical aspects of the investigation, said it had concluded its field work at the crash site.

The safety board work will continue at its laboratories in Washington as experts examine debris and attempt to reconstruct the plane’s last moments of flight from data collected by the plane’s “black box” flight data recorder. The recorder was heavily damaged by the impact of the crash, but the safety board still hopes to glean useful information from it.

The FBI has moved into the forefront of the investigation with its determination that the crash of the four-engine, BAe 146 jetliner was a crime, not an accident. Agents have identified Burke, 35, one of the passengers aboard the plane, as the lone suspect.

Burke is believed to have brought down the plane in a vengeful attack on the man who fired him from his job at USAir, parent company of PSA.

FBI spokesman Fred Reagan said Friday that the writing on the note found in the wreckage has been compared with known samples of Burke’s handwriting and found to be the same.

Reagan also said the note appeared to have been written calmly.

‘Neat Handwriting’

“There didn’t appear to be any stress on the writer,” Reagan said. “It was very neat handwriting.”

Agents believe the note was slipped by Burke to Raymond Thomson, 48, a USAir official who recently had fired Burke from his job as a ticket agent at Los Angeles International Airport.

“Hi Ray,” the message began. “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.”

Investigators theorize that Burke fired on Thomson with the .44-magnum revolver recovered later from the wreckage and then invaded the cockpit.

In the ensuing struggle, the jetliner went into a steep dive and crashed nose first into an oak-studded hillside. All 43 aboard were believed killed instantly by the powerful impact, which shattered the plane and its contents.

Sources familiar with the investigation said the cockpit tape carries the voice of a flight attendant telling the pilot and co-pilot “We have a problem here.” A male voice--presumably Burke’s--is then heard saying, “I’m the problem.”

The sound of commotion is then heard on the tape, followed by the noise of “great acceleration” as the plane plunged earthward.

‘Good Probability’

The sources say investigators believe there is “a good probability” that the pilot and co-pilot were shot, but they have not yet developed physical evidence or evidence from the cockpit tape that confirms that theory.

Some who have heard the tape believe they can discern gunshot sounds. Others do not. The FBI’s laboratory is attempting to ascertain through enhancement what is on the tape--”the sound of shots or fists,” as one source put it. That enhancement will take some time--probably beyond the weekend.

Investigators have not yet come up with anything that can positively be identified as Thomson’s remains, so they cannot say definitely that he was shot.

The FBI’s Los Angeles office and the U.S. attorney’s office here say that were Burke alive, there is ample evidence to charge him.

If it is determined that he did, in fact, cause the crash, it would be the worst mass murder in California history and second nationally only to the dynamite attack by “maniac bomber” Andrew Kehoe in Bath City, Mich., on May 18, 1927, that killed 45--including 38 schoolchildren.

The eight PSA and USAir employees who died in Monday’s crash were honored Friday at a ceremony held on the Tarmac at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field outside the hangar where many of them had worked.

“It seems all too obviously fitting that we are here in our work home,” said PSA President Russell Ray, who was joined by about 200 other PSA and USAir executives and a Navy chaplain at the brief morning service.

Randy Malin, USAir executive vice president, said Monday’s crash strengthened the ties between the two airlines. PSA and USAir merged in May.

In addition to Thomson, company employees who died in the crash included Greg N. Lindamood, captain of Flight 1771; co-pilot James Nunn;, flight attendants Debbie Neil, Debra W. Vuylsteke, Julie Gottesman and John Conte, and passenger Doug Arthur, PSA’s chief pilot in Los Angeles.

Demand for Tighter Security

Meanwhile, responding in Los Angeles to disclosures that Burke was permitted to bypass security screening before boarding Flight 1771, Mayor Tom Bradley ordered the city’s Airport Commission to demand tighter security at city airports.

In a letter to the commission, Bradley said the Federal Aviation Administration has “statutory responsibility” for screening, adding that the “crash of the PSA jetliner has raised serious questions about how well the FAA and the airline carriers are exercising this responsibility.”

Bradley ordered the commission to demand that “every person boarding a flight should be screened before leaving a security area to enter the airplane,” including airline and airport personnel. He also demanded that companies doing business at the airport not allow former employees to enter secure areas.

An affidavit filed by the FBI in support of a search warrant said an unidentified PSA official told agents that Burke had been recognized as a “familiar airline employee and therefore was not screened for weapons” before boarding the flight.

Security companies employed by airlines to operate the metal detection and luggage-inspection devices at Los Angeles International Airport appeared to be tightening their procedures by Friday.

Guards were being more vigilant about inspecting the badges of airline employees, who are normally allowed to bypass metal detectors if they show identification. Rather than simply acknowledging that an employee had a badge, security personnel manning bypass areas were comparing the face of the employee and the face on the badge. Some airline employees--accustomed to walking by simply after being recognized on sight--were surprised when guards asked them to show their badges.

“Everybody’s watching us like a hawk,” said an official of one of the five security companies that service LAX’s terminals. He suggested that the FAA and the airlines--which now face fines if weapons slip by security guards during FAA security checks--may impose tougher demands on the security contractors.