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Coast Guard rescues Pan Am Flight 6 - in the middle of the Pacific Ocean
Unto the Breach ^ | 17 October 2019 | Chris Carter

Posted on 10/17/2019 5:11:14 AM PDT by fugazi

On the evening of 15 October 1956 a Pan American Airlines Stratocruiser named Clipper Sovereign of the Skies lifted off from Honolulu, headed to San Francisco on a 2,000-mile flight. 24 passengers and seven crew were flying the final leg of their around-the-world flight, but still had 2,000 miles of open ocean to cross.

4 hours, 38 minutes into the nine-hour flight Capt. Richard Ogg climbed from 13,000 feet to 21,000. After leveling off, Clipper‘s Number 1 engine started spinning out of control. The cockpit suddenly jolts and the high-pitched noise of the runaway engine can be heard inside the cabin. The crew works to bring the engine RPMs down, but can’t feather the propeller to slow the blades down. Capt. Ogg is left with no choice but to kill the engine by cutting off the flow of oil.

Down to three engines with 1,000 miles to fly, the Pan Am crew now had to contend with a propeller that is now creating a tremendous amount of drag, slowing down the plane and requiring the remaining three engines to increase their power — and fuel consumption — to compensate.

Good news/bad news

The bad news: the Pan Am clipper has just reached the “point of no return” — halfway between Honolulu and San Francisco. The good news: 50 miles to the east is Ocean Station NOVEMBER, a spot in the Pacific where a Coast Guard cutter kept station, providing weather reports, relaying communications traffic, and is on call for search and rescue duties. Within moments of the incident, the Pan Am crew notified USCGC Pontchartrain (WHEC-70) of the situation. Although it was still the middle of the night, seas were calm if the pilot had to ditch in the ocean.

(Excerpt) Read more at victoryinstitute.net ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: aviation; militaryhistory; rescue; uscg
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

We arrived in Japan in September 1956. The Pan Am ditching was a month later and the magazine covers showed the doomed tailless plane. Post barber shop still had Life magazines on the Andrea Doria sinking.

There were several Stratocruiser crashes in the Pacific during the next two years. There was one where an engine seized & tore up the adjacent prop; they landed safely on two engines. One, The Romance of the Skies, had friends of ours on board when it disappeared without a trace.

Learned much later that the 28 cylinder “corncob” engines on the Boeing 377 were notoriously unreliable.

Flew to Japan & back; I always envied those who voyaged on Army transport ships like the Gen. E.D. Patrick (there are vids of its final days).


21 posted on 10/17/2019 6:26:19 AM PDT by elcid1970 ("The Second Amendment is more important than Islam.")
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To: Blogatron

I watched the video. Very good. Although the plane was torn up pretty good. It’s a miracle that no one was killed or severely injured.


22 posted on 10/17/2019 6:26:30 AM PDT by HighSierra5
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To: fugazi
This looks as if a crewman was on guard against sharks with a Thompson. Anyone have any knowledge?

Shark watch was mentioned in the film.


23 posted on 10/17/2019 6:27:23 AM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: fugazi
Outstanding video.


24 posted on 10/17/2019 6:43:03 AM PDT by moovova (You can't buy it back if you didn't sell it to me.)
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To: marktwain

I noticed that but had forgotten the mention of the shark watch. My mind went immediately to “terrorism”. I need help.


25 posted on 10/17/2019 6:44:52 AM PDT by moovova (You can't buy it back if you didn't sell it to me.)
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To: fugazi

If a plane with four engines could fly with just ONE engine (like 2 engine planes can), then 4 engines would be better.


26 posted on 10/17/2019 6:59:58 AM PDT by faucetman (Just the facts, ma'am, Just the facts)
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To: elcid1970
the 28 cylinder “corncob” engines on the Boeing 377 were notoriously unreliable.
Crews jokingly called the C-97 (essentially the military's version of the 377 in this story) the Boeing tri-motor because the engines failed so often.
27 posted on 10/17/2019 7:18:47 AM PDT by fugazi
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To: AndyJackson

I have over ten years experience on USAF version of the this aircraft and several others with the same engine/prop systems. That includes 1957-58 providing maintenance on those spending 26 hours on the Pacific run. I’m surprised they are still in service.


28 posted on 10/17/2019 7:27:10 AM PDT by hdstmf (first)
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To: fugazi

Funny in the movie “Sully” they had the question

” when’s the last time you ever heard of an airliner ditching and everybody survived?”

Well before the “Miracle on the Hudson” this is the last time and airliner ditched and everybody survived


29 posted on 10/17/2019 7:35:48 AM PDT by tophat9000 (Tophat9000)
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To: hdstmf

I stand corrected. Re-reading the article, I realized it was an old story.


30 posted on 10/17/2019 7:38:28 AM PDT by hdstmf (first)
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To: fugazi

When I was going to college at Santa Barbara the airport was the base for the “Pregnant Guppy” an interesting modification of this kind of plane.


31 posted on 10/17/2019 8:01:35 AM PDT by hanamizu
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To: oldbill

Thanks to oldbill, I had to add this to the story:

In 1969, a C-97 Stratofreighter (essentially the military’s version of the Boeing 377 above) was enroute from Travis Air Force Base (Calif.) to Hawaii’s Hickam Air Force Base on their way to Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam when the crew experienced a similar problem. One of the 28 cylinders in the Number 4 engine cracked its head and threatened to disintegrate the propeller. The crew managed to feather the engine and continued with three engines as they reached the halfway point of their flight.

No sooner than the crew finished their post-emergency checklist, the crew chief reported that the Number 2 engine was on fire. Now down to two engines — which due to their location provided asymmetrical thrust that made flying extremely difficult — the crew turned around and headed for San Francisco. Ocean Station NOVEMBER was again called on for a potential rescue at sea as the C-97 dropped out of the sky.

“The C-97 was a good ditching airplane, averaging 11 minutes of float time. That was marginally comforting,” recalled William Campenni, (Col. (ret.), U.S. Air National Guard) who served as copilot on this particular Air National Guard flight. However, “a C-97 that had ditched off the Azores floated for 10 days until it was deliberately sunk as a hazard to shipping. It wasn’t rocket science to compute that 10 days factored into that 11-minute average meant those other C-97s must have sunk like stones.”

The crew applied full takeoff power to stay airborne, finally leveling off at 1,000 feet. To keep from getting wet, they would have to keep constant pressure on the rudder pedals and the throttle at full power — for the next four hours. They made it past the Coast Guard cutter, who called for a C-130 rescue plane to fly west and meet them in case the remaining two engines gave out But as the fuel burned off, the Stratofreighter became lighter and they could back off the throttles.

The two engines held out and got the crew back to San Francisco. The engines on the C-97 were so unreliable that crews jokingly called the Stratofreighter the “Boeing Tri-Motor.”


32 posted on 10/17/2019 8:31:32 AM PDT by fugazi
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To: fugazi

My God, that is a riveting video! What a bunch of amazing people!


33 posted on 10/17/2019 3:29:34 PM PDT by yldstrk (Bingo! We have a winner!)
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To: elcid1970

6 trips on five different ships, including;
William O. Darby
E. D. Patrick
M. M. Patrick
G. M. Randall
W. A. Mann

The MM Patrick was nicknamed the “Mickey Mouse.”
One of the vessels broke in half at a dock in California, was raised and welded back together. It went on to serve for years...


34 posted on 10/18/2019 9:28:10 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Baseball players, gangsters and musicians are remembered. But journalists are forgotten.)
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