The State - News from Feb. 10, 1988

Federal investigators have ruled out engine or mechanical problems as contributing to the Dec. 7 crash of a Pacific Southwest Airlines jetliner in which all 43 people on board died, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The preliminary findings support a theory by federal authorities that the British Aerospace Bae-146 crashed after a passenger opened fire on the two pilots after having shot another passenger on a flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Investigators previously have said shots were fired in the cabin and then in the cockpit. A disgruntled former employee of USAir, which owns PSA, was believed to have smuggled a gun aboard the plane with the intention of killing his former supervisor, who also was on the plane.