Pan Am Flight 845

Pan Am Flight 845

N747PA, the aircraft involved in the 1971 accident, at San Francisco International Airport in 1971.
Accident summary
Date	July 30, 1971
Summary	Pilot error
Site	San Francisco Int'l Airport San Mateo County, California United States
Passengers	199
Crew	19
Injuries (non-fatal)	29 (10 serious)
Survivors	218 (all)
Aircraft type	Boeing 747-121
Aircraft name	Clipper America
Operator	Pan Am
Registration	N747PA
Flight origin	Los Angeles, California
Stopover	San Francisco Int'l Airport
Destination	Tokyo, Japan

Pan Am Flight 845 was a Boeing 747-121, registration N747PA, operating as a scheduled international passenger flight between Los Angeles, CA and Tokyo, with an intermediate stop at San Francisco International Airport (ICAO: KSFO). On July 30, 1971, at 15:29 PDT, while taking off from San Francisco bound for Tokyo, the aircraft struck approach lighting system structures located past the end of the runway, seriously injuring two passengers and sustaining significant damage. The crew continued the takeoff, flying out over the ocean and circling while dumping fuel, eventually returning for a landing in San Francisco. After coming to a stop, the crew ordered an emergency evacuation, during which 27 passengers were injured while exiting the aircraft, with eight of them suffering serious back injuries. The accident was investigated by the NTSB, which determined the probable cause was the pilot's use of incorrect takeoff reference speeds. The NTSB also found various procedural failures in the dissemination and retrieval of flight safety information, which contributed to the accident.

The Boeing 747-121, registration N747PA, manufacturing serial number 19639, first flew on April 11, 1969 and was delivered to Pan Am on October 3, 1970. She was the second 747 off Boeing's production line but wasn't delivered until nearly ten months after Pan Am's first 747 flight. Originally named Clipper America it had logged 2,900 hours of operation at the time of the accident.

The flight crew of Flight 845 consisted of five Crew (a captain, a first officer, a flight engineer, a relief flight engineer and a relief pilot). The captain was Calvin Y. Dyer, a 57-year-old resident of Redwood City, California, a pilot with 27,209 hours flying experience, 868 of which were on the 747. The first officer was Paul E. Oakes, a 41-year-old resident of Reno, Nevada, with 10,568 hours experience, 595 on the 747. The flight engineer was Winfree Horne, he was 57 years old and from Los Altos, California, he had 23,569 hours flight experience, 168 on the 747. Second officer Wayne E. Sagar was the relief pilot he had 3,230 hours of flight experience, 456 on the 747. The relief flight engineer was Roderic E. Proctor, a 57-year-old resident of Palo Alto, California, he had 24,576 flight hours, 236 on the 747.