Germanwings Crash Revives Memories Of Similar California Crash In 1987

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — This week's tragic French Alps airliner crash is drawing comparisons to a California crash from nearly 30 years ago.

That PSA Flight 17-71 crash brought immediate changes to airline travel before the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

In both cases, the planes are believed to have hit a mountain at full speed, leaving no chance of survivors.

In 1987, investigators determined the California PSA plane crash was caused by disgruntled ex-employee David Burke. They say he shot the plane's pilots, then crashed it into a mountain, killing 43 people.

Pilot and Sacramento City professor of aeronautics Scott Miller was working at SFO the night of the PSA crash and remembers it well.

"And all of a sudden, here comes the police, here comes. here comes the investigators, here comes everybody it was pretty obvious that a crash had occurred," he said.

Investigators determined Burke bypassed security to board the plane using his former employee security access.

"At that time in 1987, any airline employee that had appropriate airline or airport ID, could bypass the security lane," Miller said. "That changed as a result of that accident in 1987."

Now after Sept. 11, with vast new airline security measures in place, this week's tragedy, allegedly caused by a single pilot in the cockpit is prompting its own safety review. International airliners are now adopting the U.S. security system that requires two people in the cockpit at all times.