Pan Am Flight 708 (PA 708) was a cargo flight that crashed on initial approach less than west-southwest of its destination airport,
Berlin Tegel
Berlin Tegel "Otto Lilienthal" Airport (german: link=no, Flughafen Berlin-Tegel „Otto Lilienthal“) was the primary international airport of Berlin, the federal capital of Germany. The airport was named after aviation pioneer Otto Lilientha ...
in Germany, in the early morning hours of November 15, 1966. The flight was operated by a
Pan American World Airways
Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...
(Pan Am)
Boeing 727-21,
registration
Register or registration may refer to:
Arts entertainment, and media Music
* Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc.
* ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller
* Registration (organ), th ...
name ''Clipper München'', routing from
Frankfurt Airport
Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...
. All three crew members perished. The cause was undetermined because
US investigators were not allowed to survey the impact site near
Dallgow in what was then
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
, and only half of the aircraft remains were returned by
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
military authorities in East Germany to their US counterparts in former
West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
.
Flight details
Flight 708 usually landed at
Tempelhof Airport
Berlin Tempelhof Airport (german: Flughafen Berlin-Tempelhof) was one of the first airports in Berlin, Germany. Situated in the south-central Berlin borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg, the airport ceased operating in 2008 amid controversy, leav ...
. But because of runway maintenance at Tempelhof, Pan Am shifted its flights to
Tegel Airport
Berlin Tegel "Otto Lilienthal" Airport (german: link=no, Flughafen Berlin-Tegel „Otto Lilienthal“) was the primary international airport of Berlin, the federal capital of Germany. The airport was named after aviation pioneer Otto Lilienth ...
. At the time of the accident, weather was poor and it was snowing.
The Soviet authorities returned about 50% of the wreckage. Some major components were not returned, including the
flight data and
cockpit voice recorder
A flight recorder is an electronic recording device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of facilitating the investigation of aviation accidents and incidents. The device may often be referred to as a "black box", an outdated name which has ...
s, flight control systems, navigation and communication equipment.
At the time of the crash, the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
did not belong to the
International Civil Aviation Organization
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...
(ICAO).
Nations belonging to ICAO allow reciprocal visits by official observers in order to improve aviation safety.
References
External links
Aviation query National Transportation Safety Board
*
Satellite image of crash locationGoogle Maps
{{Pan Am
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1966
Aviation accidents and incidents in Germany
Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 727
708
__NOTOC__
Year 708 ( DCCVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 708 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era b ...
1966 in East Germany
Soviet Union–United States relations
1960s in West Berlin
November 1966 events in Europe