Pan Am Flight 845/26 was a four-engined Boeing 377 Stratocruiser named ''Clipper United States'' and registered as ''N1032V''. It departed

Portland International Airport Portland International Airport is a joint civil–military airport and the largest airport in the U.S. state of Oregon, accounting for 90% of the state's passenger air travel and more than 95% of its air cargo. It is within Portland's city l ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

on a flight to

Honolulu International Airport Daniel K. Inouye International Airport , also known as Honolulu International Airport, is the main airport of Oahu, Hawaii.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 ...

on March 26, 1955. The aircraft was en route and about off the Oregon coast when at 11:12 Pacific Standard Time the No. 3 engine and propeller tore loose from the wing causing a loss of control. The aircraft was ditched. The aircraft floated for twenty minutes before sinking in of water. Approximately two hours after the aircraft ditched, 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 ...

attack transport Attack transport is a United States Navy ship classification for a variant of ocean-going troopship adapted to transporting invasion forces ashore. Unlike standard troopships – often drafted from the merchant fleet – that rely on ...

arrived on the scene and rescued the 19 survivors. Four people died. The probable cause was failure of No. 3 propeller which caused the engine to detach and the aircraft to become uncontrollable. The experience provided lessons that helped prevent any casualties in another ditching the following year, when

Pan Am Flight 6 Pan Am Flight 6 (registration N90943, and sometimes erroneously called Flight 943) was a round-the-world airline flight that ditched in the Pacific Ocean on October 16, 1956, after two of its four engines failed. Flight 6 left Philadelphia on Oct ...

sank between Honolulu and San Francisco.

References

* ICAO Accident Digest Circular 50-AN/45 (92-96)
"Hobbs v. Franklin life insurance"
''The Federal Reporter'' 1958-05-22

External links

CAB Accident Investigation Report File No. 1-0039

U.S. Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States and ...

Archived Report -

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 ...