Pan Am flight 6
| Pan Am flight 6 | |
|---|---|
 Ditching the plane |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Ditching |
| place | Pacific Ocean , approximately 1,800 km east of Hawaii |
| date | October 16, 1956 |
| Fatalities | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 377 |
| operator | Pan American World Airways |
| Mark | N90943 |
| Surname | Clipper Sovereign Of The Skies |
| Departure airport | Honolulu Airport |
| Destination airport | San Francisco International Airport |
| Passengers | 24 |
| crew | 7th |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
On October 16, 1956, the crew of a Boeing 377 on Pan-Am Flight 6 carried out a ditching in the Pacific Ocean . The machine touched down next to a United States Coast Guard ship that was monitoring air traffic about halfway between Hawaii and San Francisco . All 31 inmates survived the incident.
Flight history
Pan American World Airways' Boeing 377 Stratocruiser ( registration number : N90943) was on a round-the-earth flight that began in Philadelphia and headed east over Europe , Asia and Hawaii . On the last leg from Honolulu to San Francisco there were 24 passengers and seven crew members on board.
The plane took off from Honolulu Airport on October 15 at 8:26 p.m. local time and climbed to a cruising altitude of approximately 4,000 meters (13,000 feet ). After the machine had covered about half the distance, the crew received clearance to climb to 6,400 meters (21,000 feet). To do this, the pilots increased the engine power . When the Boeing 377 reached this altitude at 01:19 a.m., the speed of engine no. 1 could no longer be throttled and increased in an uncontrolled manner. The pilots reduced the thrust of the other engines and extended the flaps to 30 degrees to keep the aircraft under control.
The over-revving engine No. 1 was switched off by closing the fuel supply line. However, it was not possible to bring its propeller into the sail position , as a result of which it rotated uncontrollably in the air stream and increased the air resistance of the aircraft. The captain had the oil supply to the engine interrupted in order to bring the propeller to a standstill, but this also failed. Because the speed had meanwhile dropped to about 270 km / h (150 knots ) and the machine was losing altitude about 300 meters (1,000 feet) per minute, the output of the remaining three engines was increased again at 1:24 a.m. Here a problem arose with engine no. 4, which only delivered a reduced performance. With only two fully functional engines and the increased fuel consumption due to the rotating propeller, the aircraft could neither reach California nor return to Hawaii.
The crew made radio contact with Ocean Station in November and announced an emergency landing there. The November station , which was at a fixed position (30 ° 01.5 'N 140 ° 09' W) halfway between California and Hawaii, was used for flight control and was manned continuously by a United States Coast Guard ship . The flight to the ship's position about 70 kilometers away was carried out at an altitude of about 900 meters (3,000 feet) at a reduced speed of 250 km / h (140 knots).
Execution of ditching
The sailors of the ship on duty , Pontchartrain , launched a string of lights , which should serve as a reference point in the event of an emergency landing at night. The pilots decided against a landing in the dark and circled over the ship. Meanwhile, the flight attendants brought loose objects into the lower of the two cabin areas and informed the passengers about how to use the life rafts . The captain ordered all passengers to be placed in the forward cabin section because he feared that the stern would tear off when touching down.
At 02:45 a.m., the damaged engine no. 4 completely failed. Its propeller was brought into the sail position. The crew managed to circling with two engines until dawn. The fuel consumption made the aircraft lighter so that ditching could take place at low speed.
The flight captain informed the ship's crew at 05:40 that he would begin the descent. Taking into account the wind and wave direction, the aircraft should touch down on a heading of 315 degrees. The Pontchartrain's dinghies brought out a foam carpet .
The machine touched down at 6:15 a.m. at a speed of almost 170 km / h (90 knots). After the first slight contact, the aircraft with the front fuselage dipped completely and was braked heavily, whereby the cabin area behind the wings and the tail unit broke off. Five passengers were slightly injured because their seats came out of their anchoring. While the stern sank a short time later, the hull floated to the surface. The occupants used the emergency exits above the wings and climbed into the life rafts from there. These were pulled to the Pontchartrain by the ship's dinghies . In addition, the sailors recovered several occupants from the left wing because one of the rafts had not fully deployed. The plane sank at 6:35 a.m., about three minutes after the last people were recovered.
Trivia
- The film footage of the ditching and rescue of the inmates sparked international media interest. However, the press initially named the last three digits of the registration number N90943 as the flight number, which is why the incident is also incorrectly referred to as Flight 943 . ZDF once again addressed the accident in 1980 in an episode of the series Pictures That Moved the World .
- There were a large number of canaries on board, the 44 transport containers of which went down with the machine.
- Just one year later, another Boeing 377, which carried out Pan-Am flight 7 in the opposite direction, crashed in almost the same position. A third Stratocruiser touched down off the coast of Oregon in 1955 . The company thus lost a Boeing 377 in the Pacific every year from 1955 to 1957.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h ICAO Aircraft Accident Digest No. 8, Circular 54-AN / 49, pp. 133 - 137 (PDF)
- ^ A b c Civil Aeronautics Board, Pan American World Airways, Inc., Boeing 377, N90943 in the Pacific Ocean, between Honolulu and San Francisco, October 16, 1956
- ^ SF Gate, Danville pilot has historical predecessor
- ^ Aviation Safety Network, Pan American World Airways Accidents
Coordinates: 30 ° 1 ′ 50 ″ N , 140 ° 9 ′ 0 ″ W.