AlaskaAV
GONE WEST
Mission, TX
This story is not about Alaska but is about a great airline, (the old) Pan AM, departing out of SFO for HNL. Aircraft: 707-320. This story is edited from my origional posting.
The flight had arrived from the east somewhere and did a normal turnaround and departed for Honolulu. The aircraft was full of passengers and near gross weight on departure and probably 300 or 400 pounds over gross upon pushback. That was legal at the time because the powers at be determined a jet aircraft would burn that much weight off on taxi out. Normal departure routine and pushback and the aircraft took the runway in a normal manor.
Just after liftoff and while turning left, the number 4 engine let go. There was an engine fire which was filmed by a passenger from the rear of the aircraft. Another passenger had a tape recorder and started a continuous recording of everything that went on after that.
Fire bottles did no good for some reason but I suspect a severed fuel line. After a short time, the engine itself separated from the wing and while doing so, took the outboard 22 foot of the right wing with it but the fire went out. I do not know if the passenger filmed the separation but heard he did. That portion of the film I have not seen if it was filmed.
So what does the flight crew do? Not back to SFO because they would have been over too many residential areas so they elected to head to Travis AFB which wasn't really that far off their heading.
The aircraft seemed to be responding to control inputs so the crew had time to think things through. I am not that familiar with the 707s but have always wondered just how much aileron control they could have had other than differential power and rudder. There were lots of PA announcements, as recorded by a passenger, and at no time did any flight/cabin crew member show any real concern to the passengers. I suspect this was due to the great cabin crew employee training that (the old) Pam AM did and the expertise of all the crew. There is an exception of course from one mishap out of LAX with a (the old) Pan Am 747 but that is another story elsewhere.
OK, enroute to Travis AFB, the aircraft lost the complete engine, which landed in a school yard but with no injuries (kids were in class), and I never did find out where the wing went but assume in an area where it did no damage or we would have heard about it.
OK, lets jump to final at Travis. On a long final on three engines (no big problem really) with no time to dump fuel (a problem), and with 22 foot of the right wing and number 4 gone, it gets interesting. On a short final, a typical big dust divil passed over the chosen runway. Now here, it gets a little cloudy in my mind. I heard the crew had to abort and make another pass, which I think is true, and another source says they landed through the dust divil. Since the aircraft was under control, I really doubt the Captain would have chosen to fly through these screwy winds but remember, I do not know that to be a fact.
Regardless, they made the landing with no problems.
Now the beauty of how the traveling public thought about aviation back in those days which was maybe the late 60s or early 70s.
Once deplaned, the Air Force took care of the passengers and crew. In a very short time, (the old) Pan AM sent another 707 up from SFO to replace the aircraft and to continue the flight on to HNL. As I recall, there were 154 passengers and a crew of 7 or 8. The same crew took the same flight number on to HNL. Only 4 of the original passengers did not reboard.
A comment from one passenger that continued: "the landing at Travis was actually smoother than the landing we made coming into San Francisco".
Boeing always made it a practice to run every problem through their computers and simulators as most airlines do. United 232 at Sioux City, IA is a perfect example.
Several flight crews could not land the aircraft under those conditions at Travis AFB and a Boeing computer said that the Boeing 707 at that weight could not fly with 22 foot of a wing gone and on three engines. Ah what the heck, what do computers know anything?
Never tell a flight crew, bush pilot to Apollo 13 commander that something can't be done. If you do, they will do anything to prove you wrong. Landing on the moon the first time with just 16 seconds of fuel remaining got close to it though. If you ever get a chance to listen to the unedited tapes of that landing, you can hear a guy calling out fuel remaining in seconds. Landing one of our 737s at Fairbanks with an estimated 3 minutes of fuel remaining on a flight, with mechanical problems, from Barrow worried all of us that were listening in. What did the Captain think? Gee, and I had all of that extra weight on board. I have posted many stories about this Captain but not by name. Not only was he a fantastic pilot who grew up from a true Alaska bush pilot, he was a comedian that would have been enjoyable to watch on Jay Leno.
The flight had arrived from the east somewhere and did a normal turnaround and departed for Honolulu. The aircraft was full of passengers and near gross weight on departure and probably 300 or 400 pounds over gross upon pushback. That was legal at the time because the powers at be determined a jet aircraft would burn that much weight off on taxi out. Normal departure routine and pushback and the aircraft took the runway in a normal manor.
Just after liftoff and while turning left, the number 4 engine let go. There was an engine fire which was filmed by a passenger from the rear of the aircraft. Another passenger had a tape recorder and started a continuous recording of everything that went on after that.
Fire bottles did no good for some reason but I suspect a severed fuel line. After a short time, the engine itself separated from the wing and while doing so, took the outboard 22 foot of the right wing with it but the fire went out. I do not know if the passenger filmed the separation but heard he did. That portion of the film I have not seen if it was filmed.
So what does the flight crew do? Not back to SFO because they would have been over too many residential areas so they elected to head to Travis AFB which wasn't really that far off their heading.
The aircraft seemed to be responding to control inputs so the crew had time to think things through. I am not that familiar with the 707s but have always wondered just how much aileron control they could have had other than differential power and rudder. There were lots of PA announcements, as recorded by a passenger, and at no time did any flight/cabin crew member show any real concern to the passengers. I suspect this was due to the great cabin crew employee training that (the old) Pam AM did and the expertise of all the crew. There is an exception of course from one mishap out of LAX with a (the old) Pan Am 747 but that is another story elsewhere.
OK, enroute to Travis AFB, the aircraft lost the complete engine, which landed in a school yard but with no injuries (kids were in class), and I never did find out where the wing went but assume in an area where it did no damage or we would have heard about it.
OK, lets jump to final at Travis. On a long final on three engines (no big problem really) with no time to dump fuel (a problem), and with 22 foot of the right wing and number 4 gone, it gets interesting. On a short final, a typical big dust divil passed over the chosen runway. Now here, it gets a little cloudy in my mind. I heard the crew had to abort and make another pass, which I think is true, and another source says they landed through the dust divil. Since the aircraft was under control, I really doubt the Captain would have chosen to fly through these screwy winds but remember, I do not know that to be a fact.
Regardless, they made the landing with no problems.
Now the beauty of how the traveling public thought about aviation back in those days which was maybe the late 60s or early 70s.
Once deplaned, the Air Force took care of the passengers and crew. In a very short time, (the old) Pan AM sent another 707 up from SFO to replace the aircraft and to continue the flight on to HNL. As I recall, there were 154 passengers and a crew of 7 or 8. The same crew took the same flight number on to HNL. Only 4 of the original passengers did not reboard.
A comment from one passenger that continued: "the landing at Travis was actually smoother than the landing we made coming into San Francisco".
Boeing always made it a practice to run every problem through their computers and simulators as most airlines do. United 232 at Sioux City, IA is a perfect example.
Several flight crews could not land the aircraft under those conditions at Travis AFB and a Boeing computer said that the Boeing 707 at that weight could not fly with 22 foot of a wing gone and on three engines. Ah what the heck, what do computers know anything?
Never tell a flight crew, bush pilot to Apollo 13 commander that something can't be done. If you do, they will do anything to prove you wrong. Landing on the moon the first time with just 16 seconds of fuel remaining got close to it though. If you ever get a chance to listen to the unedited tapes of that landing, you can hear a guy calling out fuel remaining in seconds. Landing one of our 737s at Fairbanks with an estimated 3 minutes of fuel remaining on a flight, with mechanical problems, from Barrow worried all of us that were listening in. What did the Captain think? Gee, and I had all of that extra weight on board. I have posted many stories about this Captain but not by name. Not only was he a fantastic pilot who grew up from a true Alaska bush pilot, he was a comedian that would have been enjoyable to watch on Jay Leno.
