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Pan American World Airways Flight 202 was a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser aircraft which crashed in the Amazon Basin about southwest of Carolina, Brazil on April 28, 1952. All 50 people on board were killed in the worst-ever accident involving the Boeing 377. The investigation took place under exceptionally unfavourable conditions, and the cause of the crash was not established. But the Stratocruiser's engines were known to be temperamental, and it was theorised that an engine had separated in flight after propeller blade failure. == Flight, disappearance, and discovery == Flight 202, a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser registration N1039V, had begun its route the previous evening in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with stopovers in Montevideo, Uruguay, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It departed Rio de Janeiro at 3:06 am local time for Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, with an eventual destination of New York City, New York. It was cleared to fly an off-airways route directly to Port of Spain; this took it over the (at the time) unexplored forests of the Amazon jungle. The pilots reported abeam the town of Barreiras, Brazil at 6:16 am local time, and estimated the next position report (abeam Carolina, Brazil) at 7:45 am. Witnesses in the villages of Formosa and São Francisco reported seeing the aircraft overhead at about the time it reported abeam Barreiras; they reported that the aircraft appeared to be operating normally. When the aircraft failed to report abeam Carolina and then abeam the town of Santarém, Brazil, local authorities initiated a missing aircraft alert. Brazilian Air Force, USAF, and US Navy aircraft searched the jungle, while Brazilian Navy ships searched the coastal areas off northern South America. The wreckage was not found until May 1, when a Pan Am Curtiss Commando freighter reported finding it in Caraja Indian territory southwest of Carolina. "The burned, broken wreckage of the Pan American Stratocruiser that vanished Monday night was found in northern Brazil today. There was no evidence that any of the 50 persons aboard, including 19 Americans, lived through the crash. An air hunt over of jungle, river basins and plateau land finally located the ruins in the Indian country between the towns of Barreiras and Carolina. "Airline officials said the find had been made by a C-46 Pan American cargo plane piloted by Capt. Jim Kowing of Miami. The scene is about southwest of Carolina, a Tocantins River town north-northwest of Rio de Janeiro. The double-decked Stratocruiser was reported to have broken in two; its charred wreckage was scattered on both sides of a high hill." "Pan American officials said a Panair do Brasil airliner circled the scene of the crash: Its pilot reported extensive evidence of fire and said he saw two of the big plane's engines: lying apart in the hilly, heavily wooded area. A Pan American passenger plane was converted to carry a seven-man rescue unit, headed by Maj. Richard Olney of the United States Air Force base at San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Maj. Oliver Seaman, an Air Force flight surgeon." "Pan American's office at Miami, reported that after circling the scene for four hours, the rescue plane returned to its base at Para without dropping the rescue team. It said they did not jump because there were no signs of survivors."〔"The New York Times", May 2, 1952〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pan Am Flight 202」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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