Pan Am Flight 812
Boeing 707- 320B, a sister aircraft of Pan Am (1979 )
Pan Am Flight 812, an international passenger flight from Hong Kong to Sydney was on 22 April 1974. Shortly before a scheduled stopover in Denpasar, Indonesia, crashed the Boeing 707- 320B from. None of the 96 passengers and eleven crew members survived.
Crew and aircraft
Captain of the flight was the 52 -year-old Donald Zinke. The experienced pilot had more than 18,000 hours of flight experience, of which more than 7,000 to 707 Boeing prong was wearing glasses and a licensed pilot for Boeing 707/720 and Douglas DC- fourth First officer and co-pilot was 40 year old John Schroeder, he also had a valid pilot license for Boeing 707 / 720th His experience based on more than 6,000 flying hours, including more than 4,700 on Boeing 707 Also, the third officer Melvin Pratt and the two flight engineers Timothy Crowley and Edward Keating were experienced and in possession of valid licenses.
When disaster machine it concerned a Boeing 707 321B, with registration number N446PA. The name of the aircraft was Clipper Climax. The machine was delivered on 16 December 1966 by Boeing at Pan American World Airways. Until April 22, 1974, the aircraft was flown 27,943 hours at 9,123 landings. Last maintenance was held before the start in Hong Kong. Clipper Climax was equipped with four engines, Pratt & Whitney type JT3D.
Flight
The Boeing 707 was launched at 11:08 GMT clock (corresponding clock 19:08 China Standard Time ) from Hong Kong Kai Tak Airport. The goal was the Australian port city of Sydney, was a scheduled stopover at the Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, which was scheduled to take place 15:31 clock GMT ( 23:31 local time clock ).
The flight was routine. 14:28 GMT clock Clipper Climax of Area Control Centre Jakarta was taken over and pointed to a lower altitude ( Level 280 Level 350 instead ). 15:08 GMT clock was made to contact the machine with the Bali Control. Captain Zinke was instructed to descend to flight level 100, as runway Runway 09 was provided. Counter clock 15:26 GMT radio contact broke off to present in the landing machine. According Voice Recorder captain tried to contact prong ground control, but this did not succeed. Also, radio transmissions from the tower to the Boeing 707 did not get through.
Crash and Investigation
Clipper Climax collided with a mountain, about 68 km north- west of the airport. The crash area is hilly and covered in 20 to 30 feet tall trees. Upon impact, the machine was broken apart. Wreckage lay up to a radius of 50 meters away. Investigations of the damaged trees showed that broke out after the crash fire. The landing gear were extended.
Investigators of the Indonesian Transport Ministry could not detect a material failure of the aircraft. The engines were to crash fully functional. The analysis of the voice recorder yielded difficulties of the captain, radio contact with ground control. The recorder showed that there were no problems of the conventional approach to land. The pilots were informed of the partially over 2,000 meters high landscape. The pilots should, 25 kilometers away from the beacon to the airport, fly a right turn, this fall to 500 meters and Rundway 09 flying from the sea.
15:18 GMT clock watching loud voice recorder, the crew is a difference in the two displays of the radio compass ( ADF). 15:19 GMT clock was captain prong prompted to radio contact with Bali Tower on a different frequency. The radio contact came to pass, Clipper Climax asked permission to go lower. Bali Tower pointed to an altitude of 650 meters, the achievement was confirmed at 15:23 GMT clock.
The investigators came to believe that the pilots the right turn ushered in too early, probably confused by the contradictory ADF ads.
Victim
There were no survivors among the 107 occupants of the aircraft. The victims came from eleven nations. Here is an overview of nationalities: