Interesting True Story about PanAm's Boeing 314 Clipper

[scott_295]

From gcmap.com:

 

In 1941, a Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat named California Clipper (registered NC-18602 and subsequently renamed Pacific Clipper) completed Pan Am's first around-the-world flight. It had not been planned that way.

 

The trip had started on 2 December 1941 as PA 6039, a scheduled passenger flight from Pan Am's San Francisco base on Treasure Island to Auckland, New Zealand, with five scheduled stops along the way:

San Pedro, California

Honolulu, Hawaii

Canton Island

Suva, Fiji

Nouméa, New Caledonia

 

Upon reaching Auckland, the aircraft was intended to return to San Francisco as PA 6040, but two hours after departing Nouméa radioman Eugene Leach heard a radio report of the Japanese attack on Peark Harbor. Tuning to the long-range signal from Pan Am's ground station in Nouméa they picked up a repeating message via Morse Code:

PEARL HARBOUR ATTACKED. IMPLEMENT PLAN A.

 

Captain Robert Ford secretly had a sealed envelope outlining Plan A: continue to the nearest safe Pan American base, avoiding enemy forces. That meant continuing on to Auckland. The crew spent a week in Auckland before receiving new orders:

Normal return route cancelled. Proceed as follows:

 

Strip all company markings, registration numbers, and indentifiable insignia from exterior surfaces. Proceed westbound soonest your discretion to avoid hostilities and deliver NC18602 to Marine Terminal LaGuardia Field New York.

 

Good Luck

 

The crew had no charts for areas west of Auckland and had to develop a plan with the help of the Auckland library. They first returned to Nouméa to evacuate 22 Pan Am employees, women, and children, and take them to Gladstone, Australia. From there, they flew via nine intermediate stops, under radio silence and with assorted threats along the way, before reaching New York before dawn on 6 January 1942.

 

 

Aside from being an interesting story, I thought someone might want to see the route in case they wanted to create flight plans based on it.

[leuen]

Some time ago I recreated this memorable flight with FS9.

 

https://calclassic.proboards.com/thread/10191/1941-american-airways-b314s-long

 

Bernard

[joaopaz]

Wonderful!

Thanks for sharing!

[tgibson_new]

A great story indeed, thanks.

[CRJ_simpilot]

The crew had no charts for areas west of Auckland and had to develop a plan with the help of the Auckland library.

 

 

 

Being the imaginative person I am, I'm thinking of a spoof...

 

 

 

 

"Oh, bloody hell! Who knocked me off the modem!" :cool:

[scott_295]

Being the imaginative person I am, I'm thinking of a spoof...

 

 

 

 

"Oh, bloody hell! Who knocked me off the modem!" :cool:

lol