Pan American World Airways - Accidents and Incidents

Accidents and Incidents

Pan Am aircraft were involved in numerous accidents and incidents, including a number of aircraft hijackings and terrorist attacks.

An accident involving a Pan Am plane on December 8, 1963 led to the FAA's ordering the installation of safety devices on aircraft. The 707, named Clipper Tradewind (N709PA) and operating as flight 214, was in a holding pattern on a flight from Baltimore to Philadelphia when it was last seen going down in flames. It was determined that lightning had ignited vapors in the plane's fuel tanks. As a result of the disaster, lightning discharge wicks were installed on all commercial airliners. There were 81 fatalities.

Between 1965 and 1974 a further five Pan Am 707s were involved in major accidents that resulted in substantial loss of lives. Three of these occurred on the airline's Pacific network between December 1973 and April 1974 within a time span of five months. More than 300 lives were lost in all five accidents, two-thirds of which were accounted for by the last three (30 fatalities: September 17, 1965 / 707-121B N708PA Montserrat, Caribbean; 51 fatalities: December 12, 1968 / 707-321B N494PA near Caracas, Venezuela; 78 fatalities: July 22, 1973 / 707-321B N417PA near Papeete Faaa; 97 fatalities: January 30, 1974 / 707-321B N454PA near Pago Pago, American Samoa; 107 fatalities: April 22, 1974 / 707-321B N446PA near Denpasar Ngurah Rai, Bali, Indonesia).

A Pan Am 727 was also involved in an enduring Cold War mystery that remains unresolved to this day, which occurred on November 15, 1966. On that day, Clipper München, a Pan Am Boeing 727–21 (N317PA) operating the return leg of the airline's daily cargo flight from Berlin to Frankfurt Rhein-Main Airport (Pan Am flight 708) was due to land that night at Tegel Airport, rather than Tempelhof, due to runway resurfacing work taking place at that time at the latter. Berlin Control had cleared flight 708 for an Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach to Tegel Airport's runway 08, soon after the crew had begun its descent from flight level (FL) 090 (9,000 feet) to FL 030 (3,000 feet) before entering the southwest air corridor over East Germany on the last stretch of its journey to Berlin. The aircraft impacted the ground near Dallgow, East Germany, almost immediately after the crew had acknowledged further instructions received from Berlin Control, just 10 mi (16 km) from Tegel Airport. All three crew members lost their lives in this accident. Visibility was poor, and it was snowing at the time of the accident. Following the accident, the Soviet military authorities in East Germany returned only half of the aircraft's wreckage to their US counterparts in West Berlin. This excluded vital parts, such as the flight data recorder (FDR), the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) as well as the plane's flight control systems, its navigation and communication equipment. The subsequent National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation report concluded that the aircraft's descent below its altitude clearance limit was the accident's probable cause. However, the NTSB was unable to establish the factors that had caused the crew to descend below its cleared minimum altitude.

On September 6, 1970, two men hijacked Pan Am flight 93, a Boeing 747–121 (N752PA) en route from Amsterdam to New York, as part of the Dawson's Field hijackings. The flight diverted to Beirut International Airport to take on board seven other gang members for the next leg to Cairo International Airport, where the hijackers ordered the aircraft evacuated and destroyed it with explosives.

On December 17, 1973 five Palestinian terrorists, who had taken six hostages at Rome Fiumicino Airport, bombed Pan Am flight 110 while passengers boarded. The Boeing 707-321B (Clipper Celestial, N407PA) caught fire, killing 30 people.

On July 9, 1982 Clipper Defiance, a Boeing 727–235 (N4737), operating as Pan Am flight 759, crashed minutes after takeoff from New Orleans Airport in the worst accident in aviation history involving microburst-induced wind shear. All 145 passengers and crew members perished, as well as eight people on the ground when the plane careered through a residential area adjacent to the airport.

On August 11, 1982 Pan Am flight 830, a Boeing 747–121 (N754PA), was bombed over the Pacific Ocean killing one passenger before safely landing in Honolulu.

On September 5, 1986 a Pan Am 747 named the Clipper Empress of the Seas (N656PA), operating as Pan Am flight 73, was taken over by hijackers while on a scheduled stop in Karachi. The flight never departed Karachi, but 20 people were killed when the aircraft was stormed on the ground.

On November 6, 1986 Eastern Air Lines Captain George Baines was flying in his private aircraft, a Piper PA-23 (N2185P), from his home to Tampa International to catch a flight. As he approached Tampa International's runway 36L (now 1L) in heavy fog, he declared a missed approach and went around to try it again. On the second attempt, he touched down on a parallel taxiway and ultimately collided with a Pan Am 727–200 that was taxiing on this taxiway. Baines lost his life in the accident. He was the only fatality. No other injuries were reported.