From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Pan Am Flight 151

1951 aircraft accident in Liberia

Field	Value
name	Pan Am Flight 151
occurrence_type	Accident
image	Pan Am L-049 Constellation at London.jpg
caption	N88846, the aircraft involved in the accident
date
type	Controlled flight into terrain
site	near Sanoyie, Bong County, Liberia
aircraft_type	Lockheed L-1049 Constellation
aircraft_name	Clipper Great Republic
operator	Pan Am World Airways
callsign	CLIPPER 151
tail_number	N88846
origin	Johannesburg, Union of South Africa
stopover0	Leopoldville, Belgian Congo
stopover1	Accra, Gold Coast
last_stopover	Monrovia, Liberia
destination	New York City
passengers	31
crew	9
fatalities	40
survivors	0

On 22 June 1951, Pan Am Flight 151, flown by the Lockheed L-049 Constellation propliner Clipper Great Republic (registration ) crashed into a West African hill at an elevation of 1050 ft near the village of SanoyieThe village is spelled "Sanoye" in the official CAB accident report, but four spelling variations are known to be used: Sonoyea, Sanoghie, Sanoye and, as used by both Google Maps and Bing Maps, Sanoyie. in Bong County, Liberia. All 31 passengers and nine crew on board were killed.

Sequence of events

The Johannesburg to New York City flight was on the Accra, Gold Coast (now Ghana), to Monrovia, Liberia leg of its journey. At 0301h during a pre-dawn approach to Monrovia's Robertsfield Airport, the flight crew reported to the tower that the radio beacon at Dakar, Senegal was interfering with the Robertsfield radio beacon.{{cite web |url-status = dead

After a day's search, the "completely disintegrated remains of the Pan American World Airways plane that disappeared over West Africa Thursday night were found yesterday," Harold R. Harris, vice president of the line said. Searchers from a Lutheran mission at Sanoye, Liberia, first located the shattered four-engine plane that had carried thirty-one passengers and a crew of nine. Later, Pan American officials in a company plane flew over the wreckage and identified it.

What was left of the big transport was found by the mission hunting party about four miles southwest of the village of Sanoye and about 45 miles north-northeast of Roberts Field. The plane had hit near the top of a 1,500-foot hill.|The New York Times, June 24, 1951

Investigation

It was determined that the location where the flight crashed was beyond the effective range of the Robertsfield beacon. This, combined with the report from the crew that the Dakar beacon was interfering with the Robertsfield beacon, resulted in the frequency of the Robertsfield beacon being changed to provide greater separation of frequencies between the two beacons. Investigation of the wreckage revealed no indications of mechanical malfunction, the aircraft had enough fuel for another eight hours of flight, the weight and disposition of the payload was within allowable limits, and the weather was above minima.

The Civil Aeronautics Board investigation concluded that the probable cause of the accident was the action of the captain in descending below his en route minimum altitude without positive identification of the flight's position.

Notes

References

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1951-in-liberia aviation-accidents-and-incidents-in-1951 aviation-accidents-and-incidents-in-liberia airliner-accidents-and-incidents-caused-by-pilot-error aviation-accidents-and-incidents-involving-controlled-flight-into-terrain accidents-and-incidents-involving-the-lockheed-constellation pan-am-accidents-and-incidents bong-county june-1951-in-africa

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Pan Am Flight 151 — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report