Pan Am Flight 6 Ditching Site

 aircraft, crash site

On October 16th, 1956, the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser "Clipper Sovereign Of The Skies" was forced to ditch into the Pacific Ocean at this location after losing two of its four engines while operating on the Honolulu-San Francisco leg of the round-the-world flight.

Having departed Honolulu shortly before 830pm the previous day, the full-loaded aircraft was just past its halfway point between its origin and destination when the #1 engine began to go out of control. Forced to seize the engine after all attempts to shut it down or feather its propellers failed, the flight crew aboard the Stratocruiser struggled to maintain altitude as the loss of power and increased drag caused by the inoperative engine slowed the aircraft. After less than an hour after losing engine #1, the Stratocruisers #4 engine, located on the outside of the opposite wing also began to fail, forcing the crew to shut it down as well at roughly 245am.

Now operating on two of its four engines and creating too much drag to safely make it either back to Honolulu or onward to San Francisco, the flight crew sent out a mayday call that was answered by the US Coast Guard Cutter Pontchartrain (WHEC-70), operating as a weather ship at the nearby Ocean Station November. Safely reaching the Pontchartrain's location under the cover of darkness, the aircraft circled the cutter until daylight, her crew hoping to burn off excess fuel to increase buoyancy and have a better idea of sea conditions before attempting to ditch their aircraft.

Finding favorable conditions shortly after full sunrise, the Captain of Clipper Sovereign Of The Skies brought his aircraft towards the Pontchartrain's position on several practice runs before finally easing the aircraft into the sea at 615am. An unlucky swell rotated the airframe as it slowed and settled into the Pacific Ocean and snapped off the tail section, but ample preparation by the cabin crew meant that all passengers were located well forward over the structurally sound wing box of the aircraft.

Within moments of the Stratocruisers coming to a stop, life rafts were deployed and filled with passengers and crew as the plane began to flood and sink, and with assistance from whaleboats from the Pontchartrain, all 31 passengers and crew of Pan Am Flight 6 were safely recovered with only a few minor injuries by the time the airframe sank at this location at 635am.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkR4F3_fEUQ

aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19561016-0