Pacific American Airlines was a United States

charter airline Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flights ...

headquartered in Burbank,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Its predecessor was formed in 1946 as Airplane Charter by Mercer and renamed to Mercer Airlines in 1955. DeWight W. Mercer sold the company, was renamed Pacific American in 1976. The airline provided interstate passenger and cargo charter services as well as contract services for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

area. It has since ceased operations. __NOTOC__

Fleet

* 4 –

Douglas DC-6 The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958. Originally intended as a military transport near the end of World War II, it was reworked after the war to compete with th ...

* 1 –

Lockheed L-188 Electra The Lockheed L-188 Electra is an American turboprop airliner built by Lockheed. First flown in 1957, it was the first large turboprop airliner built in the United States. Initial sales were good, but after two fatal crashes that led to expensiv ...

Accidents and incidents

* On August 4, 1972, a Mercer Airlines

Douglas DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...

, registration N31538, suffered an in-flight engine fire shortly after takeoff from

Naval Air Station Point Mugu Naval Air Station Point Mugu was a United States naval air station near Oxnard, California, which operated as an independent base from 1941 to 2000, when it merged with nearby Naval Construction Battalion Center Port Hueneme to form Naval Base V ...

on a repositioning flight to Hollywood-Burbank Airport. The aircraft departed the runway in the emergency landing and was severely damaged by the subsequent fire. All three people on board survived. * On February 8, 1976, Mercer Airlines Flight 901 (prototype of the DC-6 series), registration N901MA, experienced the separation of its no. 3 engine shortly after takeoff from Hollywood-Burbank Airport. One of engine's propeller blades passed through the fuselage and severed pneumatic, hydraulic, and emergency airbrake lines as well as the electrical wiring for Curtiss electric propeller controls and some engine instruments. The blade continued out of the fuselage and struck the no. 2 engine, disabling its lube oil scavenge pump and causing it to begin filling with oil. After an abortive attempt to land at Burbank, which became a touch-and-go when the crew discovered that hydraulic brakes, thrust reverse, and emergency air brakes were all inoperative, the captain elected to attempt an emergency landing on the longer, uphill Runway 34L at Van Nuys. Because of severe damage resulting in loss of power from the No. 2 engine, a bare firewall where the No. 3 engine had separated, and drag from the drooping landing gear and flaps, the airplane was unable to make it to the runway and attempted to land on a golf course in the final approach corridor. The nose of the aircraft struck a concrete foundation of a partially constructed building, separating the nose gear main trunnion and jamming the gear assembly up into the cockpit. The three flight crew members aboard the aircraft perished, although the two stewardesses and a baggage handler in the cabin survived.

References

{{Airlines of the United States, state=collapsed Airlines established in 1946 Defunct airlines of the United States Defunct companies based in California 1946 establishments in California Airlines based in California

Fleet

Accidents and incidents

See also

References