Pan Am Flight 1104, trip no. 62100, was a

Martin M-130 The Martin M-130 was a commercial flying boat designed and built in 1935 by the Glenn L. Martin Company in Baltimore, Maryland, for Pan American Airways. Three were built: the '' China Clipper'', the ''Philippine Clipper'' and the '' Hawaii Cli ...

flying boat nicknamed the ''Philippine Clipper'' that crashed on the morning of January 21, 1943, in Northern California. The aircraft was operated by

Pan American 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 ...

and was carrying ten

US 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 ...

personnel from

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

, to

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. The aircraft crashed in poor weather into mountainous terrain about southwest of

Ukiah, California Ukiah ( ; Pomo: ''Yokaya'', meaning "deep valley") is the county seat and largest city of Mendocino County, California, with a population of 16,607 at the 2020 census. With its accessible location along the U.S. Route 101 corridor, Ukiah serves ...

Aircraft

The ''Philippine Clipper'' was one of three M-130 flying boats designed for Pan Am by the Glenn L. Martin Company. It was built as a trans-Pacific airliner and sold for $417,000 (the equivalent of $8.5 million in 2022). At the time, the M-130 was the largest aircraft built in the United States, until it was surpassed in 1938 by the

Boeing 314 The Boeing 314 Clipper was an American long-range flying boat produced by Boeing from 1938 to 1941. One of the largest aircraft of its time, it had the range to cross the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. For its wing, Boeing re-used the design from ...

. The ''Philippine Clipper'' entered service with Pan American in 1936, and inaugurated passenger service between the United States and Manila in October 1936. The ''Philippine Clipper'' was at

Wake Island Wake Island ( mh, Ānen Kio, translation=island of the kio flower; also known as Wake Atoll) is a coral atoll in the western Pacific Ocean in the northeastern area of the Micronesia subregion, east of Guam, west of Honolulu, southeast of T ...

when it was attacked by the Japanese on December 8, 1941. It was slightly damaged in the attack, and departed the island shortly afterwards. During World War II, the ''Philippine Clipper'' and sister ship ''

China Clipper ''China Clipper'' (NC14716) was the first of three Martin M-130 four-engine flying boats built for Pan American Airways and was used to inaugurate the first commercial transpacific airmail service from San Francisco to Manila on November 22, 193 ...

'' were pressed into service for the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

, though they remained crewed by Pan American personnel. At the time of the crash, the aircraft had logged 14,628 hours of flight time, had flown the Pacific Ocean for eight years, and had survived strafing by Japanese aircraft on

on December 8, 1941.

Crash

Flight 1104 departed from Pearl Harbor on

Oahu Oahu () ( Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over two-thirds of the population of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The island of O� ...

in the Hawaiian Islands at 5:30 pm on January 20, 1943. The nine-man Pan Am crew consisted of four pilots, three engineers, two radio operators, and a steward. The flight was captained by Robert M. Elzey.Pan American ''Philippine Clipper'' Memorial Plaque, Hiller Aviation Museum, San Carlos California.

Photo A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now crea ...

. By mid-January 1943, Captain Elzey had accumulated about 4,941 flying hours, of which 3,359 were while in the employ of Pan American. Pan American Philippine Clipper plaque

The 10 passengers on board were all U.S. naval officers. Among them was Rear Admiral Robert H. English, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Submarine Fleet, the submarine component of the

United States Pacific Fleet The United States Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT) is a theater-level component command of the United States Navy, located in the Pacific Ocean. It provides naval forces to the Indo-Pacific Command. Fleet headquarters is at Joint Base Pearl Harbor� ...

. Rear Admiral English planned to visit submarine support facilities at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard bordering

San Pablo Bay San Pablo Bay is a tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of San Francisco Bay in the East Bay and North Bay regions of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California. Most of the Bay is shallow; however, there is a deep water c ...

, and was accompanied by three of his senior staff officers. Another passenger was Lieutenant Edna Morrow, a Navy nurse diagnosed with terminal cancer who was on her way home to die. Also on board was Captain Robert Holmes Smith, formerly in command of the submarine tender, and recently promoted to Commander of Squadron 2, Pacific Submarine Fleet. Until the crash, the flight was routine, as evidenced by radio transmissions during the night. A strong tailwind put the flight three and a half hours ahead of schedule. On the morning of January 21, 1943, the aircraft ran into poor weather as it flew north over California towards San Francisco. Heavy rain, strong winds, thick cloud cover, and fog forced the captain to descend to a lower altitude. At 7:30 am, the far off-course aircraft crashed into a mountain at about , descending at an angle of 10°, whereupon it clipped a number of trees before crashing, breaking up, and burning. Over a week passed before the wreckage was located, and after it was found, the area was cordoned off by soldiers to protect any surviving classified military documents that may have been carried aboard. The

Civil Aeronautics Board The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) was an agency of the federal government of the United States, formed in 1938 and abolished in 1985, that regulated aviation services including scheduled passenger airline serviceStringer, David H."Non-Skeds: T ...

investigated the crash and decided the probable cause was pilot error.

Memorial

The

Hiller Aviation Museum The Hiller Aviation Museum is an aircraft history museum located at the San Carlos Airport in San Carlos, California. The museum was founded by Stanley Hiller in June 1998. and is endowed by members of the Hiller family. It specializes in Nor ...

, in San Carlos, California, has a memorial plaque to the aircraft which sits outside the entrance to the museum. The memorial plaque includes a brief history of the aircraft, as well as a list of casualties. The museum is situated near the flight's destination of San Francisco Bay, about 157 miles from the accident site.

References

External links

Report
of the

Archive

Photo of Philippine Clipper NC-14715 flying over the Golden Gate Bridge in 1936
at sfmuseum.org
Photo of Philippine Clipper afloat
at findagrave.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Pan Am Flight 1104 Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain Airliner accidents and incidents involving fog Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1943 Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error Disasters in California Pan Am

1104 Year 1104 ( MCIV) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Summer – The Byzantines re-occupy the Cilician cities of Tarsus, Adana an ...

Airliner accidents and incidents in California History of Mendocino County, California

Aircraft

Crash

Memorial

See also

References

External links