Pan Am diverted to Samoa due crew sleeping?

[John Hill]

I cant find anything to support the story I hear long ago about a Pan Am Clipper heading from Fiji for Canton which eventually arrived in Samoa because the crew fell asleep and when they awoke they were too far off course to make Canton. Must have been in the 50's I think.

I always thought the skipper was the same fellow who did a sucessful ditching beside an Atlantic weather ship, Captain Ogg I think was the name.

If the sleep story is true it must be somewhere on-line but it has eluded me so far.

Any clues? Thanks.

[BelArgUSA]

In the 1950s... they would have been in a B-377, a DC-6 or DC-7...
And that was a crowd in the flight deck.
Captain, First Officer, Flight Engineer, Navigator and probably Relief Pilot...
I can see 1 or 2 guys fall asleep - but... 4 or 5 guys...???
And 3 or 4 Flight Attendants taking care of - 30 or 40 people...
And coffee service for the guys up front...?
xxx
I flew with PanAm 1969-1991... Many horror stories I heard about...
Guys landing at wrong airport...
Pilot falling asleep and crew make him believe plane is out of fuel when waking up.
But that one I never heard about... Although Captain Oggs' name rings a bell.
For something... hey, sorry, getting old...
:)
Happy contrails

[WHBM]

Guys landing at wrong airport...

That would likely be landing a 707 in 1960 at the small RAF Northolt base, about 5 miles to the north of London Heathrow, by mistake for Heathrow itself.

Here's a photo of the aircraft (and dates, reg, etc) getting off the little runway at Northolt, with a few spectators :

http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1001607

If that photo's where I think it is he seems to have got off the ground with a run of only about 4,000 feet.

[S'land]

BelArgUsa:

Although Captain Oggs' name rings a bell.

A Captain Ogg was the pilot of Pan American Stratocruiser Flight 943 that lost two engines on a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco 17 October 1956.

He was in contact with US Coast Guard Cutter "Pontchartrain" and decided to ditch the aircraft at dawn. While the aircraft was cruising around, waiting for dawn and burning fuel, he even told the passengers to unfasten their seatbelts and light up their cigarettes.

He ditched the aircraft and all of the passengers and crew got off safely, or with minor injuries.

Sounds like a very professional and cool character.


Here is a link to some more information about the flight.



http://www.generalaviationnews.com/editorial/articledetail.lasso?-token.key=7299&-token.src=column&-nothing

[mohavewolfpup]

He ditched the aircraft and all of the passengers and crew got off safely, or with minor injuries.


sorry for the bump, but i'm wondering something.

think something like this could be feasible today, or more then likely not due to the higher speeds/force brought on by jet engines? piston engines compared to a jet engine aren't exactly blazing fast, so it would be easier to have more control in a situation like this? :confused:

[KawiRider]

The story of the Stratocruiser that got lost and ended up landing at Samoa can be found at: pprune slash archive slash index.php slash t-521325 dot html.

[Fareastdriver]

Or https://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-521325.html for short.

[chevvron]

That would likely be landing a 707 in 1960 at the small RAF Northolt base, about 5 miles to the north of London Heathrow, by mistake for Heathrow itself.

Here's a photo of the aircraft (and dates, reg, etc) getting off the little runway at Northolt, with a few spectators :

http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1001607

If that photo's where I think it is he seems to have got off the ground with a run of only about 4,000 feet.
With just enough fuel to get to Heathrow and after taking out the passenger seats.
Runway at Northolt is 5525ft.

[Fareastdriver]

Not the first. On the 17th July 1953 a BOAC Comet landed at Juhu instead of Santa Cruz International in Mumbai.

Only 1,200 yards TODA took a lot of interior stripping over several days.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/69481006

[Wander00]

Northolt 707 - watched it from our classroom at Harrow County School, as I said on another thread

[Warmtoast]

S'land

A Captain Ogg was the pilot of Pan American Stratocruiser Flight 943 that lost two engines on a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco 17 October 1956.

Wiki has an entry for this event c/w photos here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_6