Francisco Paula Gonzales was born on January 26, 1937, in the Philippines. A skilled sailor, he represented the country at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, competing in the Dragon class alongside teammates Fausto Preysler and Jesus Villareal. This was a proud moment for the Philippines in Olympic sailing.

After the Olympics, Gonzales relocated to San Francisco, California, hoping to build a life in the United States. However, what began as a promising future took a turn. Gonzales reportedly fell into financial hardship and personal trouble. His wife filed for divorce, and he began accumulating serious debt. Friends and acquaintances later described him as deeply troubled during this time, though few saw what was coming next.

On May 6, 1964, Gonzales flew to Reno, Nevada, where he purchased a gun and took out a $100,000 life insurance policy—listing his soon-to-be ex-wife as the beneficiary. The plan was tragically simple and devastatingly effective.

The next day, May 7, Gonzales boarded Pacific Air Lines Flight 773, a scheduled domestic flight from Reno to San Francisco aboard a Fairchild F-27 aircraft. Shortly after takeoff, Gonzales pulled out his weapon and shot both the pilot and the co-pilot in the cockpit. He then turned the gun on himself. With no one left to control the aircraft, it crashed near San Ramon, California, killing all 44 people on board—making it the deadliest aviation incident in U.S. history at that time involving pilot homicide-suicide.

The subsequent investigation confirmed that Gonzales' actions were premeditated. His purchase of life insurance, the timing of the gun acquisition, and his emotional state leading up to the flight all painted a clear picture of a man who had decided to end his life—and take dozens of innocent people with him.

It was later revealed that he intended the life insurance payout to go to his wife, despite their divorce proceedings—a final act tied to desperation, grief, or guilt. However, due to the nature of the crime, it’s unclear whether that payout was ever granted.

The crash of Flight 773 led to significant changes in cockpit security procedures, including the eventual push for locked and reinforced cockpit doors, a precursor to the security measures that would become standard decades later.