Pan Am Flight 1104

Pan Am Flight 1104

Martin M-130, similar to the one lost in the crash.
Accident summary
Date	January 21, 1943
Summary	Pilot error
Site	Mendocino County, 7 miles (11 km) SW of Ukiah, California 39°04′0″N 123°17′0″W / 39.06667°N 123.28333°W / 39.06667; -123.28333Coordinates: 39°04′0″N 123°17′0″W / 39.06667°N 123.28333°W / 39.06667; -123.28333
Passengers	10
Crew	9
Fatalities	19
Injuries (non-fatal)	0
Survivors	0
Aircraft type	Martin M-130
Aircraft name	Philippine Clipper
Operator	Pan American World Airways
Registration	NC-14715
Flight origin	Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii
Destination	San Francisco, California

Pan Am Flight 1104, trip no. 62100, was a Martin M-130 flying boat nicknamed the Philippine Clipper that crashed on the morning of January 21, 1943, in Northern California. The aircraft was operated by Pan American Airways and was carrying ten US Navy personnel from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to San Francisco, California. The aircraft crashed in poor weather into mountainous terrain about 7 mi (11 km) southwest of Ukiah, California.

The Philippine Clipper was one of three M-130 flying boats designed for Pan Am by the Glenn L. Martin Company. It was built as a trans-Pacific airliner and sold for $417,000. At the time, the M-130 was the largest aircraft built in the United States., until it was surpassed in 1938 by the Boeing 314. The Philippine Clipper entered service with Pan American in 1936, and inaugurated passenger service between the United States and Manila in October 1936.

During World War II, the Philippine Clipper and sister ship China Clipper were pressed into service for the Navy, though they remained crewed by Pan American personnel. At the time of the crash, the aircraft had logged 14,628 hours of flight time, had flown the Pacific Ocean for eight years, and had survived strafing by Japanese aircraft on Wake Island on December 8, 1941.

The wind was blowing so hard it blew over trees ... The plane was flying very low. It had its lights on and came right over my house and disappeared in the storm to the north.

Flight 1104 departed from Pearl Harbor on Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands at 5:30 pm on January 20, 1943. The nine-man Pan Am crew consisted of four pilots, three engineers, two radio operators, and a steward. The flight was captained by Robert M. Elzey. By mid-January 1943, Captain Elzey had accumulated about 4,941 flying hours, of which 3,359 were while in the employ of Pan American.