Pan American World Airways

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Pan American World Airways
The well-known tail fin logo
Clipper Constitution N532PA
IATA code : PA
ICAO code : PAA
Call sign : CLIPPER
Founding: 1927
Operation stopped: 1991
Seat: New York , United States
United StatesUnited States 
Turnstile :

Miami, New York, San Francisco, Houston

Frequent Flyer Program : World Pass
Fleet size: 226
Aims: National and international
ceased operations in 1991. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation.

Pan American World Airways ( Pan Am for short , originally Pan American Airways ) was an American airline founded in 1927 with headquarters in New York and one of the world's first to offer intercontinental flights.

In 1991 Pan Am filed for bankruptcy. After parts of the extensive route network had been sold to United Airlines , the company was taken over by Delta Air Lines . Until then, it was considered the unofficial flag carrier of the USA and, alongside its main competitor Trans World Airlines, one of the two well-known international US airlines. Pan Am was a cultural icon of the 20th century with its well-known logo and callsign " Clipper ". The company was one of the founding members of IATA and shaped standards and rules for civil aviation.

timeline

The first Pan Am office, opened in the 1920s
Ford Trimotor
Pan Am Hotel and other facilities on Wake Island

First years

The airline was founded by Juan T. Trippe in Key West , Florida in 1927 under the name Pan American Airways (PAA). He had received an order from the US government for regular airmail services between Key West (Miami) in Florida and Havana (Cuba). The first passenger flight took place on January 16, 1928 with a Fokker F.VII on the same route. In addition to the Fokker F VII, the American airliner market was shaped by the Ford Trimotor.

A Pan Am Sikorsky S-42 in the 1930s
The one from the "China Clipper" on the first commercial transpacific flight from 22.-29. November 1935 from Alameda ( CA ) to Manila ( Philippines )

Pan Am's first long-haul route ran from Miami to Buenos Aires in 1931. The plane to which the line was operated, was a Sikorsky S-40 - flying boat . Other routes quickly followed. Pan Am was the first airline to offer transpacific flights on November 22, 1935, which took five days with Martin M-130 flying boats from San Francisco to Manila ( Philippines ). The flight passage cost 600 US dollars per person (as much as an automobile at the time). On the Pacific islands of Midway and Wake , Pan Am maintained intermediate stations with refueling facilities and hotels for passengers. The company also had a worldwide network of weather stations.

Pan Am Douglas DC-3
Pan Am DC-6b

From June 28, 1939, Pan Am set up the Boeing 314 Clipper, the first scheduled passenger connection across the North Atlantic, which ran from New York ( Long Island ) via the Azores to Lisbon and on to Marseille . The Second World War , which broke out shortly thereafter , allowed the Pan Am to grow further as it was able to take on transport orders for the military. In addition, military pilots were specially trained for long-range navigation. On December 7, 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor took place and the machines still flying on Pacific routes were ordered back or diverted. The machines were then given a camouflage and the entire Pan Am infrastructure was made available to the military. But that was also the beginning of the end of the flying boat era at Pan Am. The remaining flying boats were used for military transport, the last Boeing 314 was lost at the end of 1945. Pan Am pilots were also involved in supplying China over The Hump from India before the military could take on the task.

After the war, Pan Am, officially renamed Pan American World Airways in January 1950 , was one of the three US airlines that flew on scheduled services across the Atlantic. Besides her, only Trans World Airlines and American Overseas Airlines offered this . The latter was taken over by Pan Am in 1950. The lucrative market was divided to the benefit of Pan American World Airways. The company boasted of having the first global route network. In 1958, Pan Am introduced the corporate identity with the distinctive Globus logo.

The end of the propeller era

In the post-war period, Pan Am flew Douglas DC-3 and Douglas DC-4 aircraft and, for cargo traffic, Curtiss C-46 . Until the introduction of jet aircraft fleet mix of Pan Am mainly of aircraft types was Lockheed Constellation , Douglas DC-6 , Douglas DC-7 , Convair 240 / 340 and in continuation of the luxurious flying boat -Tradition prewar from Boeing 377 Strato Cruiser . The latter were not designed for maximum passenger numbers, but Pan Am ordered them with luxury furnishings with a bar, lounge and sleeping facilities.

The jet age

The Boeing 707 was the first jet aircraft to enter service in 1958

In 1955, Pan Am landed the so-called jet coup by ordering 20 Boeing 707s and 25 Douglas DC-8s "off the drawing board". In doing so, it not only got ahead of its competitors, but also captured or blocked the production capacities of the only two American manufacturers of jet passenger aircraft for a long time. On October 26, 1958, the jet aircraft age had dawned, Pan Am was the first airline to use this new technology on the route from New York to Paris. Boeing 707s made the route from New York to Paris in just 8.5 hours of flight time. The passenger volume also grew very quickly on this route. All other airlines were forced to follow suit and also use jet planes .

In 1964, Pan Am carried around 5.3 million passengers. This, along with the freight volume, generated total sales of $ 566 million and a profit of $ 37 million.

Pan Am continued to grow and in 1967 was the first airline to order 25 units of the new Boeing 747 , the so-called jumbo jet. Boeing developed this aircraft in collaboration with Pan Am. The world's first commercial flight of this type took place on January 22, 1970 with the Pan Am Clipper Young America ( N736PA , later Clipper Victor ) on the New York – London route. From 1976 a newer version, the Boeing 747SP (SP = Special Performance), was used to fly around the world with only two stopovers. Such a round the world trip lasted 46 hours and cost US $ 1,000 at the time (today's value US $ 4,482). With this type of aircraft, Pan Am offered non-stop flights between New York and Tokyo and between Los Angeles and Tokyo for the first time in aviation history .

The 1980s

A Pan Am Boeing 737-200 landing in Zurich in 1985

In October 1978 the US Congress passed the Airline Deregulation Act , which, among other things, abolished the strict separation between nationally and internationally operating US scheduled airlines. This made it possible for Pan Am to set up a national route network, but at the same time the deregulation also allowed airlines such as American Airlines , Delta Air Lines or Eastern Air Lines , which until then had only been nationally active , to set up international connections to Europe or Asia. These had a clear advantage over Pan Am : because they already had dense US route networks, they could offer domestic feeder and connecting flights for their new international connections, while Pan Am only offered point-to-point traffic. In order to get to a nationwide route network as quickly as possible, Pan Am sought to take over a nationally operating company and in 1979 bought National Airlines for 430 million US dollars, which was overpriced. In order to alleviate the financial problems, a large part of the real estate and the shares in other companies were sold. Among the properties sold was the headquarters, the Pan Am Building , built in 1964 (design: Emery Roth & Sons architects with the help of architects Walter Gropius and Pietro Belluschi ) on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan , New York. The life insurance company MetLife bought the high-rise.

Pan Am A300 and A310 in formation flight over the Pyrenees (1985)

In the 1980s, Pan Am dared to take a revolutionary step by using twin - engine Airbus A310-200s for the first time on non-stop transatlantic flights between Hamburg and New York from February 1986 . With the introduction of the Airbus, the company presented a new livery ("billboard livery"), with the planes now bearing the name Pan Am on the fuselage on a large scale. Because of the ETOPS regulation for twin-engine aircraft, Pan Am was forced to fly coastal detours with the Airbus in the first few years. Only when the ETOPS requirements were relaxed did Pan Am later have the opportunity to fly the shorter direct route with the machines.

In February 1986 Pan Am sold the traditional Pacific routes (the so-called crown jewels of the airline) to United Airlines . The sale also included a large part of the fleet. A total of eleven Boeing 747SP and six Lockheed L1011-500 (TriStar) went to United Airlines. In its international business, Pan Am wanted to concentrate primarily on the Atlantic routes. Less than three months after the Pan Am Pacific Division was sold to United, the small company Ransome Airlines was acquired and converted into its own feeder company for New York flights. Ransome Airlines was given the Pan Am Express brand name in 1987. Despite all the problems, Pan Am was still number 1 across the Atlantic.

But it was not the economic reorientation in the times of the deregulation of the US aviation market alone, the Pan Am in economic distress and eventually led to bankruptcy: On 21 December 1988, the terrorist attack of Lockerbie of Pan Am Flight 103 , a Boeing 747, bombed by terrorists over the Scottish Lockerbie . All 243 passengers and 16 crew members as well as 11 residents of Lockerbie were killed (see below). It was not the attack as such that marked the economic end for Pan Am, but rather the fact that the USA could not prevent the attack on Pan Am, the previous US flag carrier and a kind of status symbol of the USA. Pan Am was now a coveted target for terrorists in public opinion, and passenger numbers dropped dramatically.

In 1991, the traditional company ceased to exist as an independent company and was taken over by Delta Air Lines - originally with the aim of renovating Pan Am. Shortly before the takeover, Delta had already acquired the transatlantic routes, the Frankfurt hub and an intra-American shuttle service for one billion US dollars. At the same time, Delta expanded the weekly number of flights to Frankfurt from 21 to 83, making it the second largest provider of North Atlantic flights from Frankfurt.

The collapse of the company, which had shrunk to a small remainder, took place after Delta Air Lines withdrew as a financier and partner. United Airlines acquired the Latin American routes together with the take-off and landing rights in New York, Washington DC and Chicago from the bankruptcy estate of Pan Am for a total of 135 million dollars.

Pan Am was present in numerous films through product placement with airplanes, personnel or billboards (like its competitor TWA, which also no longer exists today ). The film 2001: A Space Odyssey even suggested that Pan Am would fly to an orbital space station with passenger spaceships after the turn of the millennium . In the film Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio , the competition between the TWA majority owner Howard Hughes, played by DiCaprio, and the Pan Am in the early years of aviation history is discussed.

Continued use of the brand and name

The rights to the name and the logo were sold to a group of investors who founded a new airline under the name Pan American World Airways in 1996. This new Pan Am began flight operations in 1997 with half a dozen aircraft (A300B4, B737-400), but had to cease operations shortly afterwards due to financial problems. The owners of the Guilford Transportation railroad company from New Hampshire acquired the Pan Am brand name and logo in 1998 and now offered their airline Boston-Maine Airways under the name "Pan Am Clipper Connections" with two Boeing 727-200s from United Airlines' stocks Connections in North America. Flight operations ceased on February 29, 2008. The name and logo are still used for the railway company. Until February 2018, the name "Pan American World Airways" was used by the Dominican Republic- based PAWA Dominicana (= Pan American World Airways Dominicana), which for a while also had a visually similar logo to Pan Am.

Pan Am in Berlin traffic

ATR 42 of the subsidiary Ransome Airlines in 1989 at Bremen Airport
Rush hour in Berlin traffic at Pan Am, Frankfurt Airport (1980s)

Pan Am held a special position in Germany after the Second World War . Because of the four-power occupation status of Berlin , German airlines did not receive any traffic rights for flights to the western part of the city until reunification in 1990 . With a few small exceptions, it was primarily the flag carriers of the three western allies (Pan Am, British European Airways , Air France ) who maintained federally subsidized civil air traffic between West Berlin and the federal territory . Until the new construction of the West Berlin Tegel Airport in the French sector, Pan Am and then BEA only flew to Tempelhof Airport in the American sector of Berlin, whereby Pan Am connected Berlin with the airports of Frankfurt , Hamburg , Hanover , Nuremberg , Munich and Stuttgart . When the airmail machines at Frankfurt Airport were being prepared for night flights to the major West German cities, it was easy to see from the paintwork which machine was bringing the mail to West Berlin. Airmail traffic in West Germany was then handled entirely by Lufthansa .

After Pan Am bought the US American Ransome Airlines in 1987, it carried out feeder services in the USA as well as regional flights in Germany for the parent company under the Pan Am Express brand identity. Starting from Berlin-Tegel, it operated with ATR 42 on behalf of Pan Am from the end of the 1980s onwards to Bremen , Kiel , Hanover , Dortmund and Sylt .

With effect from October 28, 1990 Lufthansa took over the flight rights from Pan Am for all 74 daily domestic German flights between Berlin and Hamburg, Nuremberg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf and Munich for 150 million dollars. De facto, however, until April 30, 1991, many Lufthansa flights were carried out by Pan Am personnel and equipment, as Lufthansa concluded a wet lease charter contract with Pan Am for a transitional period . Pan Am Express flew until September 29, 1991. Finally, on November 2, 1991, a direct Pan Am flight from Berlin to New York took off for the last time. The aircraft continued to be used by Delta Air Lines and only gradually repainted. Until Lufthansa took over the Berlin routes, Pan Am maintained a home base for flight personnel at Berlin-Tegel Airport. In addition to US pilots, this also included around 300 - mainly German - flight attendants who were later also taken over by Lufthansa.

fleet

Fleet at the end of operations

Most recently, the Pan Am fleet consisted of the following aircraft types:

Pan Am was the first customer of the aircraft types Boeing 314 “Clipper”, Boeing 377, Boeing 707, Boeing 747 and Boeing 747SP. This airline was also one of the first customers for the Airbus A320 , which was supposed to replace the Boeing 727-200, but that never happened.

The clipper

The Clipper Miles Standish , a Pan Am Airbus A310

In 1931, Pan Am introduced the first four-engine flying boat of the type Sikorsky S-40 into service and called this "American Clipper". The name clipper goes back to a certain type of sailing ship of the 19th century, which was mainly characterized by its high speed. Since the Pan Am's first "American Clipper", all multi-engine machines have been named this way. From then on, in addition to the official aircraft registration number, they also had a nickname such as "Clipper Dallas". Pan Am ordered the single-engine Fairchild 91 flying boat , known as the “Baby Clipper”, from Fairchild especially for use in the Amazon region .

The machines used in Berlin traffic mainly had names that could be associated with the city, such as “Clipper Charlottenburg ”. Individual names were so popular that Pan Am used them again and again; like the name "Clipper America", which was carried by six aircraft one after the other. In 1977 the Boeing 747SP "Clipper Constitution" was temporarily renamed "Clipper KISS Special" when the rock band Kiss chartered it for their Japan tour. The Boeing 747-100 (N739PA) with the designation "Clipper Maid of the Seas" (before 1983 "Clipper Morning Light") achieved notoriety. The plane was crashed by a terrorist attack over Lockerbie (Flight 103). Many people are also familiar with the Boeing 747-100 "Clipper Victor", as it was involved in the worst aviation accident on Tenerife on March 27, 1977, together with a KLM Boeing 747 .

The painting of the aircraft

In the mid-1940s, Pan Am began to equip their machines with a split dark blue decorative strip that framed the cabin windows. Above the decorative stripe, the full company name Pan American World Airways was written in dark blue capital letters on the fuselage. In addition, the machines continued to carry the old logo with the winged globe on the lower front half of the fuselage. After the takeover of the first Douglas DC-4, the company's aircraft began to be painted white above the decorative stripe in 1947 (the lower half of the fuselage remained unpainted). On the vertical tail waving machine painted a US flag and including the lettering PAA, though the company no more than P to A merican A irways but already as P to A merican W orld A firmierte irways.

The Boeing 747 Clipper Spark of the Ocean in the livery introduced in 1984, the so-called "billboard livery"

With the commissioning of the Boeing 707 in 1958, Pan Am changed the aircraft livery. From now on, the sides of the fuselage were provided with a medium blue decorative stripe on both sides and the inscription on the fuselage above it read in abbreviated form PAN AMERICAN. There was a large, modern, abstract globe on the vertical stabilizer, in which the abbreviation PAN AM was integrated (referred to as the Blue Ball Scheme ). Nevertheless, small changes were made within this style: from the mid-1960s onwards, the PAN AMERICAN fuselage inscription was closed PAN AM shortened, although the font was changed slightly in the course of the 1970s. With the delivery of the first Airbus A300 / 310 aircraft, Pan Am introduced a new livery of the fuselage ( billboard scheme ), with the aircraft bearing an oversized, medium-blue Pan-Am lettering on the completely white painted fuselage; the logo on the rear remained almost unchanged.

Incidents

Pan Am has suffered a total of 62 total aircraft casualties since its inception, including 43 with 1665 fatalities.

The following list includes the company's accidents in which people died and / or an aircraft was lost as a total loss.

1930s

  • On October 2, 1932, a Ford Trimotor ( aircraft registration number NC9664 ) had an accident in poor weather conditions in Honduras .
  • On April 16, 1935, a Consolidated Commander was destroyed in a hangar fire in Miami .
  • On April 11, 1936, a Sikorsky S-42 flying boat collided with a boat while taking off from Port of Spain ( Trinidad and Tobago ). Three inmates were killed in the accident.
  • On January 11, 1938, a Sikorsky S-42 exploded over the Pacific Ocean . Due to an oil leak, the crew tried to return to Pago Pago ( American Samoa ), where the machine had started an hour earlier. When the pilots began to drain the fuel to make the machine lighter, it ignited. The seven crew members died in the crash.
  • On April 25, 1938, an engine of a Sikorsky S-43 flying boat failed before landing in water near Kingston (Jamaica) . The machine crashed into the sea after stalling. All 18 people on board were rescued.
  • On July 15, 1938, a Douglas DC-3 crashed into a building in Morón (Argentina) after an engine failure . One person on the ground was killed; the 13 occupants of the machine survived.
  • On July 28, 1938, a Martin M-130 with 15 people on board disappeared without a trace on the flight from Guam to Manila . The search for the machine was stopped on August 5, 1938.
  • On August 13, 1939, a Sikorsky S-43 crashed into the sea before landing in water near Rio de Janeiro ( Brazil ) after an engine failure. Only two of the 16 inmates survived.

1940s

The Boeing 314 Yankee Clipper had an accident near Lisbon on February 22, 1943
  • On October 3, 1941, a Sikorsky S-42 broke during a water landing in San Juan, Puerto Rico . Two passengers on the flying boat lost their lives.
  • On December 8, 1941, a Sikorsky S-42 was destroyed in a Japanese air raid in Hong Kong .
  • On March 10, 1942, a Douglas DC-3 burned out in Khartoum ( Sudan ).
  • On January 21, 1943, a Martin M-130 crashed into a mountain near the town of Ukiah in poor weather conditions . All 19 inmates were killed.
  • On February 22, 1943, a Boeing 314 made a left turn before landing in the mouth of the Tagus River , with the wing hitting the water. In the accident near Lisbon , 24 of the 39 occupants died.
  • On July 27, 1943, a Sikorsky S-42 caught fire before taking off from Manaus ( Brazil ).
  • On August 8, 1944, a Sikorsky S-42 flying boat crashed while taking off in Cuba , killing 17 of the 31 occupants.
  • On September 24, 1943, a pilot died on board a Consolidated Commander who had an accident on a test flight.
  • On January 8, 1945, a Martin M-130 flying boat broke during a water landing in Port of Spain ( Trinidad and Tobago ). 23 people were killed in the accident.
  • On June 4, 1945, a Douglas DC-3 was irreparably damaged in an accident in Port of Spain.
  • On August 3, 1945, a Sikorsky S-43 flying boat capsized during a landing off the coast of Martinique in heavy seas . Four passengers were killed.
  • On November 4, 1945, two engines of a Boeing 314 flying boat failed , which then watered about 1,000 km east of Hawaii . The machine was sunk by the US Navy because it was not possible to recover it.
  • On September 24, 1946, the co-pilot accidentally retracted the landing gear of a Lockheed L-049 Constellation shortly before touchdown at Shannon Airport , which led to the total loss of the machine. All 36 occupants survived the accident.
In 1947, Pan Am lost two Douglas DC-4s in an accident
  • On June 19, 1947, an engine failed on a Lockheed L-049 Constellation (NC88845) . The overheating of the engines during the three-engine flight led to a fire in one of the engines and fire in the left wing. An emergency landing was then carried out near al-Mayadin in the Syrian desert . The machine was on the scheduled flight from Karachi to Istanbul . Of the 36 inmates, 14 were killed.
  • On September 20, 1947, two Douglas DC-4 engines failed while approaching LaGuardia Airport . In addition, an arc fault ignited the landing gear tires. The machine touched down shortly before the runway threshold. All 41 people on board survived.
  • On October 26, 1947, a Douglas DC-4 flew against Tamgas Mountain in poor weather conditions before a planned stopover on Annette Island ( Alaska ). All 18 occupants were killed on impact.
  • On April 15, 1948, a Lockheed Constellation hit the runway at Shannon Airport at night . Of the 31 occupants, only one passenger survived.
  • On January 26, 1949, an engine failure after taking off from Asmara led to the loss of a Curtiss C-46 . The four crew members survived the accident.

1950s

In the 1950s, a total of seven Boeing 377s had to be written off as total losses
  • On June 15, 1950, a propeller of a Curtiss C-46 broke while approaching Mérida . The propeller penetrated the fuselage and hit the second engine. The pilots then touched down without landing gear, and the cargo plane was irreparably damaged.
  • On May 8, 1951, a Curtiss C-46 had to be written off as a total loss after an accident in São Paulo .
  • On September 2, 1951, a Pan Am Convair CV-240-2 (N90662) flew so low on approach to Kingston Airport (Jamaica) that the end of the wing touched the water. The machine crashed into the harbor. All four crew members and thirty passengers survived. The aircraft was totaled.
  • On July 27, 1952, the outer door of a Boeing 377 opened while climbing out of Rio de Janeiro. During the sudden decompression, a passenger was torn from the cabin.
  • On March 26, 1955, engine no. 3 of a Boeing 377 tore down in flight. The crew succeeded in ditching off the coast of Oregon . Four of the 23 occupants were killed in the accident.
  • On October 16, 1956, the pilots of a Pan Am Boeing 377 (N90943) , after two engines had failed, had to ditch the Pan Am Flight 6 on the route between Honolulu and San Francisco in the Pacific. With the engine failing, it was clear that the fuel would not be enough to reach San Francisco or back to Honolulu. Before landing, the plane circled around a US Coast Guard ship until dawn to consume fuel and reduce landing weight. All 31 people on board survived.
  • On November 8, 1957, a Pan Am Boeing 377 ( N90944 ) crashed on Pan Am Flight 7 with 44 people on board on the route from San Francisco to Honolulu about 1600 kilometers east of Hawaii . Six days after the accident, ships found some floating debris and corpses. The wreck was not found. The cause of the accident remained unclear.
  • On June 2, 1958, the landing gear of a Pan Am Boeing 377 (N1023V) collapsed while landing at Manila Airport ( Philippines ) . The aircraft continued to slide, swung to the right, and came to a stop about 8 meters to the right of the runway after 870 meters. One of the 57 occupants was killed when a propeller blade struck the passenger cabin. The aircraft was totaled.
  • On February 20, 1959, a Douglas DC-7 crashed in San Francisco during a training flight. The pilots survived; the plane burned out.
  • On April 10, 1959, a Boeing 377 (N1033V) coming from Seattle-Tacoma Airport landed at Juneau Airport ( Alaska ) in front of the runway threshold and collided with an embankment. The machine caught fire and was destroyed, but all 10 occupants survived (five passengers and five crew members).
  • On June 22, 1959, a Douglas DC-6 burned out after an aborted take-off in Shannon. The 8 inmates were able to save themselves.
  • On July 9, 1959, a Pan American World Airways Boeing 377 (N90941) landed on its belly during an unsuccessful go - around attempt at Haneda Airport ( Japan ) . The aircraft was totaled. All 59 occupants survived the crash landing.
  • On September 12, 1959, a Douglas DC-4 crashed on a cargo flight near Tegucigalpa on a mountain, killing the three pilots.

1960s

On December 8, 1963, Pan Am lost its first Boeing 707 after lightning struck the plane
  • On February 18, 1961, a Douglas DC-7CF (N745PA) of Pan Am collided with a pile of earth in front of and next to the runway while approaching Stuttgart Airport . The pilots of the cargo plane coming from Frankfurt continued the approach in thick fog with a visibility of 100 meters and a cloud height of 30 meters, even below the decision height of 200 feet, although the instrument landing system did not function reliably and 4 of 5 elements of the approach lighting were out of order . When it collided with the mound of earth, the landing gear and engine No. 3 (inside right) were torn off. Nevertheless, it was possible the pilot durchzustarten and at the Nuremberg airport a belly landing on a foam carpet perform. The three-man crew remained uninjured, but the aircraft was irreparably damaged.
  • On December 8, 1963 in Elkton (beat Maryland ) is a flash in the left wing of a Boeing 707-121 of the Pan American (N709PA) . As a result of the impact, the kerosene- air mixture exploded in a tank and tore the wing apart. The 81 occupants died in the crash (see also Pan-Am flight 214 ) .
  • On November 15, 1966, a Pan Am Boeing 727-21 (N317PA) mail machine crashed onto a GSSD military training area on the approach to Berlin-Tegel Airport in Döberitzer Heide , GDR . The cause was officially stated by the NTSB as unexplained, since a final clarification without flight recorder, voice recorder and other essential wreckage was not possible. These were not returned by the Soviet authorities. All three crew members were killed (see Pan-Am flight 708 ) .
  • On June 12, 1968, a Boeing 707-321C the Pan American was (N798PA) on the airport Kolkata in poor visibility about flown one kilometer before the runway threshold into the ground (CFIT, controlled flight into terrain ). 6 of the 63 occupants were killed in the accident.
  • On December 12, 1968, a Pan American World Airways Boeing 707-321B (N494PA) was flown into the Atlantic Ocean at night before landing in Caracas because the pilots misjudged the altitude after looking at the lights of the city on a mountainside Confused Maiquetía with the runway. All 51 occupants died in the accident (see also Pan-Am flight 217 ) .
  • On December 26, 1968, a Pan American Boeing 707-321C (N799PA) took off from Elmendorf Air Force Base ( Alaska ) on a cargo flight with no lift devices deployed . Shortly after take-off led a stall to crash the machine, the three crew members were killed (see also Pan Am flight 799 ) .

1970s

  • On September 6, 1970, a Boeing 747-100 was hijacked to Cairo and blown up there. The kidnappers had the inmates disembark beforehand. It was the first total loss of a Boeing 747.
  • On July 25, 1971, the pilots of a Pan Am Boeing 707-321C (N461PA) on approach to Manila Airport fell below the minimum altitude and flew at just 770 meters against Mount Kamunay, 32 kilometers away. The three members of the flight crew of the cargo plane died in the impact.
  • On July 22, 1973, a Pan American Boeing 707-321 (N417PA) crashed into the Pacific Ocean shortly after taking off from Tahiti Airport . Of the 79 people on board, only one survived. The cause of the accident could not be clarified (see also Pan-Am flight 816 ) .
  • On November 3, 1973, smoke formed in the cabin of a Pan American Boeing 707-321C (N458PA) on its flight from New York to Glasgow. The crew of the cargo plane wanted to evade to Boston Airport , but lost control of the machine in the thick smoke, which hit 80 meters from the runway. The three crew members died in the crash (see also Pan-Am flight 160 ) .
  • On December 17, 1973, Palestinian terrorists threw several hand grenades into a Pan American Boeing 707-321B (N407PA) at Rome Fiumicino Airport while passengers were boarding . 29 passengers and one crew member were killed. The machine was damaged beyond repair. The terrorists then shot a security guard and hijacked a Lufthansa Boeing 737 to Kuwait , where they gave up a day later.
  • On January 30, 1974, 97 people died on board a Pan Am Boeing 707-321B (N454PA) when the plane hit the runway threshold at Pago Pago Airport ( American Samoa ) in shear winds . Four occupants survived the accident.

1980s

This Boeing 747-100 (N738PA) had an accident on August 4, 1983 while landing in Karachi
  • On July 9, 1982, a Boeing 727-200 got into wind shear after taking off from New Orleans International Airport , which caused the aircraft to crash. All 145 occupants and 8 people were killed on the ground in the accident (see also Pan-Am flight 759 ) .
  • On August 11, 1982, a passenger on Pan-Am flight 830 from Tokyo-Narita via Honolulu to Los Angeles on board a Boeing 747-100 was killed when an explosive device exploded under his seat and tore a hole in the cabin floor. More than a dozen other passengers were injured. The pilots were able to land the damaged aircraft safely in Honolulu.
  • On August 4, 1983, a Boeing 747-100 crashed while landing in Karachi . The machine was written off as a total loss.
  • On September 5, 1986, terrorists killed 20 people, including flight attendant Neerja Bhanot , on board a Boeing 747-100 at Karachi Airport .
  • On December 21, 1988, a Boeing 747-100 on Pan-Am Flight 103 was brought down by an explosive device . The rubble hit the Scottish town of Lockerbie . All 259 occupants of the aircraft and 11 people on the ground were killed in the Lockerbie attack .

Trivia

  • The American impostor and check fraudster Frank Abagnale pretended to be a co-pilot of Pan Am in the course of his criminal career . He used other airlines as a so-called " dead header " to fly a total of more than 1 million miles. He never flew with Pan Am because he feared it would be exposed. Abagnale also used accommodation and meals in hotels at Pan Am's expense. His life story was released in 2002 under the title Catch Me If You Can .
  • In 2011/2012 a TV series entitled Pan Am ran on the American broadcaster ABC . She portrayed pilots and flight attendants for the airline in the 1960s.
  • Pan Am Experience operates a replica Boeing 747 in Los Angeles as a set for filming, but also as a public experience restaurant with completely original props and specially trained actresses as stewardesses.

literature

  • Matthias C. Hühne: Pan Am: History, Design & Identity . Callisto Publishers, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-9816550-6-3 .

See also

Web links

Commons : Pan American World Airways  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ jp airline-fleets international, Edition 91/92
  2. ↑ Calendar sheet June 28, 1939 . First scheduled flight across the Atlantic. In: HNA Mündener Allgemeine . June 28, 2017.
  3. ↑ The new epoch , DER SPIEGEL 48 (1955), November 23, 1955, online: [1]
  4. ↑ World Industrial and Commercial Organizations (WICO)
  5. ↑ Because the N733PA Clipper Young America was canceled before the opening flight, the N736PA Clipper Victor was named Clipper Young America .
  6. ^ Pan Am's last flight plan, valid October 27, 1991
  7. ↑ Accident statistics Pan Am , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on November 25, 2017.
  8. ↑ Accident statistics Pan American World Airways , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on November 25, 2017.
  9. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  10. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  11. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  12. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  13. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  14. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  15. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  16. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  17. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  18. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  19. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  20. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  21. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  22. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  23. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  24. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  25. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  26. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  27. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  28. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  29. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  30. ↑ accident report L-049 NC88845 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on 23 November 2017th
  31. ↑ Pan Am - the story of a legendary airline , Austrianwings, March 31, 2013
  32. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  33. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  34. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  35. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  36. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  37. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  38. ↑ accident report L-049 N88846 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on 15 January 2018th
  39. ↑ accident report C-46 N74176 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on 15 January 2018th
  40. ↑ Air-Britain Archive: Casualty compendium part 53 (English), June 1994, pp. 94/53.
  41. ↑ Accident Report CV-240 N90662 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on 27 August 2017th
  42. ^ Accident report DC-4 N88899 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 29, 2019.
  43. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  44. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  45. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  46. ↑ Accident Report B-377 N90943 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on 27 August 2017th
  47. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkR4F3_fEUQ&feature=player_embedded ! Video of the landing and rescue operations
  48. ↑ Air-Britain Archive: Casualty compendium part 68 (English), March 1998, pp. 98/26.
  49. ↑ Accident Report B-377 N90944 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on 27 August 2017th
  50. ↑ Accident Report B-377 N1023V , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 18 2020th
  51. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  52. ↑ Accident report B-377 N1033V , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 5, 2019.
  53. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  54. ↑ Accident Report B-377 N90941 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 18 2020th
  55. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  56. ↑ accident report DC 7CF N745PA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 14 of 2019.
  57. ↑ accident report B 707-120 N709PA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 16 of 2019.
  58. ↑ ICAO Aircraft Accident Digest 16 Volume I, Circular 82-AN / 69 (English), pp. 143–149.
  59. ↑ accident report B 707-100 N779PA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 16 of 2019.
  60. ↑ accident report B-707-120B N708PA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 16 of 2019.
  61. ^ Aircraft accident report. Pan American World Airways, Inc. Boeing 727, N317PA near Berlin, Germany November 15, 1966. (PDF; 745 kB) National Transportation Safety Board, Washington DC, June 5, 1968, p. 30 , archived from the original on April 8 2003 ; accessed on February 5, 2018 .
  62. ↑ Accident report B-727-100 N317PA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 3, 2019.
  63. ↑ Accident Report B-707 N798PA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 16 of 2019.
  64. ↑ Accident Report B-707 N494PA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 16 of 2019.
  65. ↑ Accident Report B-707 N799PA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 16 of 2019.
  66. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  67. ↑ Accident Report B-707 N461PA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 16 of 2019.
  68. ↑ Accident Report B-707 N417PA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 16 of 2019.
  69. ↑ Accident Report B-707 N458PA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 16 of 2019.
  70. ↑ Accident Report B-707 N407PA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 16 of 2019.
  71. ↑ Accident Report B-707 N454PA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 16 of 2019.
  72. ↑ Accident Report B-707 N446PA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 16 of 2019.
  73. ↑ accident report B 727-100 N327PA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on March 6 of 2019.
  74. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  75. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  76. ↑ Associated Press in Washington: Man who placed bomb on 1982 Pam Am flight stuck in US detention limbo. In: the Guardian. Retrieved September 1, 2015 .
  77. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  78. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  79. ^ First Class in the Past , NZZ, April 24, 2017