Pan Am Flight 214


The aircraft involved in the crash, N709PA, before being delivered to Pan Am

Accident
Date: December 8, 1963
Site: Elkton, Maryland, United States
Coordinates: 39°36'47.8"N 75°47'29.7"W

Fatalities: 81
Survivors: 0

Pan Am Flight 214 was a scheduled flight of Pan American World Airways from Isla Verde International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Friendship Airport near Baltimore, and then to Philadelphia International Airport. On December 8, 1963, the Boeing 707-121 serving the flight crashed near Elkton, Maryland, while flying from Baltimore to Philadelphia, after being hit by lightning. All 81 occupants of the plane were killed. The crash was Pan Am's first fatal accident with the 707, which it had introduced to its fleet five years earlier.

An investigation by the Civil Aeronautics Board concluded that the cause of the crash was a lightning strike that had ignited fuel vapors in one of the aircraft's fuel tanks, causing an explosion that destroyed one of the wings. The exact manner of ignition was never determined, but the investigation increased awareness of how lightning can damage aircraft, leading to new safety regulations. The crash also directly led to research into the safety of various types of aviation fuel and into ways of changing the design of aircraft fuel systems to make them safer in the event of lightning strikes.

Accident

Pan Am Flight 214 was a regularly scheduled flight from Isla Verde International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Philadelphia International Airport, with a scheduled stopover at Baltimore's Friendship Airport.  It operated three times a week as the counterpart to Flight 213, which flew from Philadelphia to San Juan via Baltimore earlier the same day. Flight 214 left San Juan at 4:10 pm Eastern time on December 8, 1963, with 140 passengers and eight crew members, and arrived in Baltimore at 7:10 pm. The crew did not report any maintenance issues or problems during the flight.  After 67 passengers disembarked in Baltimore, the aircraft departed at 8:24 pm with its remaining 73 passengers for the final leg to Philadelphia International Airport.

As the flight approached Philadelphia, the pilots made radio contact with air traffic control near Philadelphia at 8:42 pm. The controller informed the pilots that the airport was experiencing a line of thunderstorms in the vicinity, accompanied by strong winds and turbulence. The controller asked whether the pilots wanted to proceed directly to the airport or to enter a holding pattern to wait for the storm to pass. The crew elected to remain at 5,000 feet (1,500 m) in a holding pattern with five other aircraft. The controller told the pilots that the delay would last about 30 minutes.  Heavy rain was falling in the holding area, with frequent lightning and gusts of wind up to 50 miles per hour (43 kn; 80 km/h).

At 8:58 pm, the aircraft exploded. The pilots were able to transmit a final message: "MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY. Clipper 214 out of control. Here we go." Seconds later, the first officer of National Airlines Flight 16, holding 1,000 feet (300 m) higher in the same holding pattern, radioed, "Clipper 214 is going down in flames." The aircraft crashed at 8:59 pm in a corn field east of Elkton, Maryland, near the Delaware Turnpike, setting the rain-soaked field on fire. The aircraft was completely destroyed, and all of the occupants were killed.

The aircraft was the first Pan Am jet to crash in the five years since the company had introduced their jet fleet.

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