Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee Stewart
On December 8, 1963, a lightning bolt hit the left wing of Pan American Flight 214, heading from Puerto Rico to Philadelphia. The bolt ignited the fuel stored in the plane’s reserve tank, causing an explosion and part of the wing to separate from the plane. The whole thing came crashing down, and all 81 passengers were killed. |
Pan Am had an incident where the number 4 engine exploded after takeoff. The wing caught fire and most of the wing outboard of that engine separated. The plane did land safely at Travis Air Force Base. Ironically, Pan Am sent another 707 to Travis to pick up the passengers and that plane’s nose gear collapsed on landing. They sent a third plane to Travis that eventually got the passengers on their way. Here’s an actual photo from the cabin.