Gone in an Instant
Murder at 31, 000 feet-Dora’s Travesty of Justice
I adore writing my Dora series as well as being addicted to every court show and case where there is some travesty of justice. I am presently following the “Crumbly Court Case”, “Rust Case”, and the “Gabby Petito Case.” Why? These cases bring me back to my kidnapping/attempted murder. My brain is flooded with information that is being sorted and filed. And I thought that I would just slip away into retirement, but that would never be me. Here is a true crime story that affected me personally.
Debbie Nissen as a five year old child
Debbie Nissen and I met when we were five years old. She was not a close friend, but we kept in touch over the years. Our parents were close, so we all saw each other regularly while we lived in Long Island in Westbury, New York. Jean and Mike (her parents) as well as Debbie and Larry moved to Northern California around the same time we moved to Southern California (1961), the relationship continued. Mike was our milkman (delivered glass bottles of milk)when we lived in New York. Those were the days that I loved milk.
Pacific Southwest Airlines
Debbie began working for PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines) one year before I graduated college. She was extremely happy about her career. She married around this time and became Debbie Neil. I was invited to the wedding, but my ex-husband, Donald did not want me to attend. Her career ended the night of the horrific crash, on December 7, 1987. She was a seventeen-year veteran at the time and was the senior flight attendant in charge of her fellow flight crew that night.
Various Articles
Various articles and dedications are detailed in the next several paragraphs with sources listed on the bottom of the page:
“Flight Attendant Debbie Nissen Neil was in good spirits after a layover the night before in San Diego, telling friends at PSA about the previous week’s vacation in New York with her mother and her daughter. Mrs. Neil, who had spent 17 of her 37 years working for PSA, had thought about calling in sick because she was worn out after several days in New York with her mother and young daughter.” “But, she didn’t,” said her brother Larry Nissen.” I never knew Larry well, but he appeared to be close to Debbie.
David A. Burke, the murderer
“David A. Burke, 35, of Long Beach, California was the fired US Air employee who reportedly sought revenge for his dismissal Nov. 19, 1987, by smuggling a .44-caliber Magnum handgun aboard Flight 1771 (Los Angeles to San Francisco)with the expressed intent to kill his former boss. Airline officials have confirmed that Burke’s former US Air supervisor was on the plane. Burke, a 14-year veteran of US Air, worked as a customer service agent at Los Angeles International Airport. The FBI is investigating whether inflight gunshots may have caused Mr. Burke’s death.”
David Burke illegally boards the plane
“The documentation states that US Air, “had recently purchased PSA, terminated David A. Burke, a ticketing agent, for petty theft of $69 from in-flight cocktail receipts; he had also been suspected of involvement with a narcotics ring. After meeting with Ray Thomson, his manager, in an unsuccessful attempt to be reinstated, Burke purchased a ticket on PSA Flight 1771, a daily flight from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to San Francisco International Airport (SFO). Thomson was a passenger on the flight, which he regularly took for his daily commute from his workplace at LAX to his home in the San Francisco Bay Area. Flight 1771 departed from LAX at 15:31 PST, scheduled to arrive in San Francisco at 16:43. Using US Air employee credentials that he had not yet surrendered, Burke, armed with a Smith & Wesson Model 29, .44 Magnum revolver that he had borrowed from a coworker, was able to bypass the normal passenger security checkpoint at LAX. He gained access to the plane via the locked crew door using the access code scratched above the lock as reported by one of the lawyers representing families of two dead passengers. After boarding the plane, Burke wrote a message on an airsickness bag, but if he gave the message to Thomson to read before shooting him is unknown.” The note read:
“Hi Ray. 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. Only 11 of the passengers were ever identified.”
Crash of Flight 1771
According to the data, “Pacific Southwest Airlines commuter jet carrying 39 passengers and a crew of five from Los Angeles to San Francisco crashed Monday afternoon in the mountainous back country of San Luis Obispo County after the pilot reported gunfire in the back of the plane, federal authorities said. All aboard were killed. Flight 1771 crashed at 4:17 p.m., about 45 minutes after it took off from Los Angeles International Airport. Los Angeles FBI spokesman Fred Reagan said agents were told that the gunshot report “was transmitted twice by a crew member, something regarding gunfire in the passenger compartment” moments before the plane crashed about 15 miles southwest of Paso Robles. Sacramento attorney Stephen Kronick, flying to Paso Robles for a meeting Monday afternoon, said both he and the pilot of the small plane he was flying in were listening to radio traffic in the area when they “heard the (PSA) pilot say that there was gunfire aboard. And after that we didn’t hear anything,” Kronick said. “The Oakland airport tried to get him on again and never was successful…”
Debbie died trying to save her flight crew
Mr. Burke killed my friend as well as every other passenger and flight crew-39 passengers dead on December 7, 1987. Debbie obviously never saw her mother, Jean, father, Mike or brother, Larry after that date. She never knew about my kidnapping and attempted murder. She never was there when her daughter married or knew that her parents died. I also never saw Debbie again all because of David A. Burke. I was planning to come to see her on December 31, 1987 against my ex-husband’s wishes. It is a moot point now.
Passengers on board
According to sources listed below, some of the passemgers of Flight 1771, “a shuttle popular with business executives, four Chevron USA executives, including Chevron USA President James R. Sylla, 53, of San Francisco. PSA identified the pilot as Capt. Gregg N. Lindamood, 43, of Julian, Calif., a 14-year veteran with 11,000 hours in the air. The other crew members were First Officer James Howard Nunn, 48, of Upland; flight attendants Debbie Nissen Neil, 37, of San Jose and Debra Watterson Vuylsteke, 32, of Redding, Conn., and flight attendant trainee Julie Gottesman, 20, of Veradale, Wash.”
Jean told my mother about Debbie’s death
I was shocked to get the call from Jean, but first I saw it on the news. I didn’t know that Debbie was on that flight until Jean called my mother and told us what happened.-43 dead, 39 passengers and 5 crew members. I felt saddened that I hadn’t seen Debbie since I married my King of Con. Jean Nissen said that as no surprise to me, “the death of a child is almost impossible to live with. “The crash was the second-worst mass murder in Californian history, after the similar crash of Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 in 1964.”
Why Debbie?
What still amazes me that with one blink of an eye, it could all be over. The articles show that Burke tried to kill Ray Tomson. This caused Debbie to get caught in the crossfire while she attempted to save her fellow crew members. It ended as bizarre as it started. As for my Travesty of Justice. On June 30, 1995, I escaped my fate during my Attempted murder. My attacker tried to kill me, but I stopped him and survived. I talked him out of my attempted murder so he demanded a ransom as a last resort. It never made sense. Why didn’t he rob My King of Con at his office first? He and his staff were in a management meeting in the Conference Room with the key employees in attendance including my King of Con. It does not follow. There has been no clarity until now. In fact, I know who wrote the racist remark on my wall of the garage door to create a diversion for my “hitman” whose intention was to kill me. We also have two eye witnesses who have come forth. I will dedicate my case with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to my friend, Debbie Nissen-Neil, one of the unsung heroes who tried to get justice for her crew. She was not as fortunate as I was because she was unable to thwart her killer’s actions.
Takeaway
I am grateful every day for my survival. I am sorry that Jean and Mike died at young ages because of the heartbreak over the death of their beloved daughter. Join me and enjoy every day as if it is our last. Let’s smell the roses.
Monday, December 7, 2020
Thirty-Three Years Later: We Remember PSA Flight 1771
In Memoriam describes the following: “On December 7, 1987, PSA Flight 1771, a British Aerospace 146 aircraft, was scheduled to operate from Los Angeles to San Francisco. A recently terminated USAir employee, David Burke, boarded the aircraft in Los Angeles with a firearm. Onboard the aircraft that afternoon was Burke’s former manager, Ray Thomson, responsible for his termination. In the act of revenge and desperation, David Burke shot Thomson and a few other passengers. He then gained access to the cockpit and shot both pilots, causing the aircraft to crash near San Luis Obispo.
Today, we remember and honor San Francisco based-Flight Attendants Debbie Nissen-Neil, Debra Watterson-Vuylsteke, and Flight Attendant trainee Julie Gottesman. We also remember Los Angeles-based Pilots Gregg Lindamood and James Howard Nunn, and PSA and US Air employees Capt. Douglas Arthur, John Conte, and Ray Thomson.
Please remember, we have 7,985 involuntarily furloughed Flight Attendants at American Airlines.”
Spurces:
https://apnews.com/article/50a7522d01917f4f78527a7b14032577
https://www.apfa.org/2020/12/07/12-07-20-thirty-three-years-later-we-remember-psa-flight-1771/
https://apnews.com/article/1b84cfbf2a5463b7d5cf4342a56f3e16
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircrash_Confidential
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-12-08-mn-27552-story.html
https://www.apfa.org/tag/in-memory/
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/97024970/deborah-ellen-neil
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