Pan Am Flight 217 was a

Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 2 ...

that crashed near

Caracas, Venezuela Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

while on a flight from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, USA on December 12, 1968. Though

pilot error Pilot error generally refers to an accident in which an action or decision made by the pilot was the cause or a contributing factor that led to the accident, but also includes the pilot's failure to make a correct decision or take proper a ...

was to blame, the

National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and inci ...

concluded the probable cause was undetermined. There were no survivors.

Aircraft and crew

Pan Am Flight 217 was operated by a

Pan American World Airways Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United State ...

(Pan Am)

Boeing 707-321B The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 20, ...

(registration N494PA, named ''Clipper Malay''). The aircraft was less than a year old — its first flight was on March 7, 1968, and it was delivered to Pan Am on March 28. There were nine crew members, including eight from the United States and one from Sweden. The captain was 50 years old and had 24,000 flight hours' experience, including 6,737 hours on the

Accident description

The aircraft took off from New York's

John F. Kennedy International Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the Avia ...

on a scheduled flight to Caracas Simon Bolivar International Airport on December 12, 1968. As the aircraft was nearing Caracas, it disappeared from

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airsp ...

's radar screens. At 22:05 local time, the aircraft crashed into the Caribbean Sea and exploded. At this point, a call was made to the

Venezuelan Navy ) , mascot = , battles = Venezuelan War of Independence and the Battle of Lake Maracaibo , anniversaries = July 24, Birthday of Simon Bolivar, Navy Day and Battle of Lake Maracaibo A ...

to search for the aircraft. Wreckage of the

was found from Caracas. All 51 passengers and crew died in the crash. Various aircraft and boats, both naval and civilian, were employed in the search and recovery operation. Some reports stated that many bodies were eaten by sharks. The crash was the deadliest aviation disaster to occur in Venezuela up to that point in time, but was surpassed by Viasa Flight 742 in 1969.

Notable passengers

One of those who perished in the flight 217 crash was

Olga Antonetti Olga "Olguita" Antonetti Núñez (February 19, 1945 – December 12, 1968) was a Venezuelan beauty pageant titleholder for 1962, and the official representative of Venezuela to the Miss International 1962 pageant held in Long Beach, Californi ...

, a former

Miss Venezuela Miss Venezuela (Spanish: ''Organización Miss Venezuela'') is the national beauty pageant of Venezuela, traditionally held in September. It is preceded by two or three months of preliminary events, with the awarding of corporate prizes. The fi ...

. Also killed was Rafael Antonio Curra, a Venezuelan ichthyologist and university professor.

Accident cause

The cause of the crash was believed to be pilot error resulting from an optical

illusion An illusion is a distortion of the senses, which can reveal how the mind normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Although illusions distort the human perception of reality, they are generally shared by most people. Illusions may oc ...

, created by the lights of the city of Caracas on an upslope. This may have caused the crew to descend until they crashed into the sea, with the loss of all on board. However, the National Transportation Safety Board stated the probable cause was undetermined.

Book about accident

The book ''The Lost Lives of the Clipper Malay'' provides details of the aircraft, the accident, and the long process of recovering the bodies of the nine crew members and 42 passengers. The recovery lasted more than a month. The book also provides a biographical account of each of the fifty-one victims.

References

{{Aviation accidents and incidents in 1968 Airliner accidents and incidents involving controlled flight into terrain Pan Am accidents and incidents Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 707 Aviation accidents and incidents in Venezuela Aviation accidents and incidents in 1968 1968 in Venezuela December 1968 events in South America Pages with unreviewed translations 1968 disasters in Venezuela