Witnesses who ran to the crash said there were no human remains larger than a hand. The body parts were to be removed when the weather cleared and taken to a temporary morgue. Pieces of aircraft and human remains that littered the crash site were tagged with fluorescent orange tape and recorded on a grid chart. No weapon, however, had been found by 12:30 p.m., when the search was suspended because a rainstorm turned the crash site into a quagmire, raising fears that valuable evidence might be trampled. “We’re looking for a weapon,” Bretzing had said early in the morning, “and hopefully if there’s one we’ll find it.” They combed the steep incline where the airliner, after what was described by witnesses as a screaming, 45-degree dive, slammed to earth and exploded into thousands of tiny pieces. Moreover, the theory, if accurate, would leave investigators and aviation officials with other troublesome questions: How could shots fired from within bring down an airliner? And how could a former employee, said by USAir officials to have been stripped of his work badge, slip past airport security with a handgun?Ī team of 100 searchers started at dawn Tuesday the monumental task of locating and identifying wreckage and remains. Proving the revenge murder scenario with forensic evidence could be exceedingly difficult, given what authorities described as the “utter destruction” of the plane and its passengers on impact. Thomson was not present at the time, but the early visit could resolve the question of how Burke knew which flight his former supervisor was taking. One of Burke’s co-workers, who asked not to be identified, said Burke had been seen at the USAir offices earlier Monday, but apparently left after talking with Thomson’s subordinates. Bretzing said only that search warrants might be served, if necessary. Investigators refused comment on a report by ABC-TV, quoting an unnamed government source, that Burke had left behind a suicide message. And that,” Bretzing told a press conference held one-half mile from the crash site, “is based not only on the tape that the air traffic controllers have, but on other investigations we are conducting outside of this area.” Bretzing, special agent in charge of the FBI office in Los Angeles, said that there was “a substantially increased basis for concluding that, in fact, criminal activity did bring this aircraft down. Lindamood, and flashed to air traffic controllers “a minute or two” before impact. Additionally, a National Transportation Safety Board official said Tuesday night that a secret cockpit distress signal had been activated, apparently by pilot Gregg N.
The pilot broadcast a report of gunfire in the passenger compartment moments before the crash. Foul play was considered an investigative possibility from the outset.
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