1959 Pan Am Douglas DC-6 crash
1959 aviation accident
On June 22, 1959, a Pan Am cargo flight went from Frankfurt to New York City via London Heathrow and Shannon. It caught fire on takeoff from Shannon and was destroyed. All six flight crew and two passengers survived.
Description
Pan American Airways Douglas DC-6B registered N5026K, named Clipper Panama was delivered on 28 May 1954. In 1958 it spent some time on lease to National Airlines but was returned to Pan Am.
On 22 June 1959, under charter, Clipper Panama departed Frankfurt for New York with intermediate stops at Heathrow Airport and Shannon Airport. Captain Robert Realm and First Officer Henry R. Hayes were onboard with a crew of four plus two passengers. Having refueled at Shannon, the plane was preparing for take off and on applying takeoff power, a loud noise was heard and the takeoff abandoned. Engine No. 4 had separated from the wing and a fire erupted, destroying the aircraft just after the crew and passengers escaped in 30 seconds via the emergency chute.
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This entry incorporates text from “1959 Pan Am Douglas DC-6 crash” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.