Word: samoan
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...disaster struck the first commercial flight just out of Pago Pago when Pan Am's No. 1 pilot, weather-beaten Ed Musick, dumped gasoline for a forced landing, burned up his Samoan Clipper with all hands (no passengers were carried). To resume service Pan Am had to apply for a new certificate, in the meantime (last August) made another exploration run via Canton Island and Noumea with a new Boeing 314 flying boat...
Last year Pan American Airways' Samoan Clipper, out of Samoa for Auckland, N. Z. on the first commercial flight between the U. S. and the Antipodes, crashed, killing famed Pilot Edwin C. Musick and her six-man crew. Despite this shattering setback, Pan American stuck stoutly to its plan for a regular San Francisco-New Zealand passenger and airmail service. It ordered six Boeing 314s, biggest plane ever assembled in the U. S. (payload: 40 passengers, 5,000 Ibs. of cargo), earmarked three for its transatlantic service, the rest for its Pacific venture. Because Kingman Reef and Pago Pago...
...case she piled up on a coral reef, enough food for 15 people for a month. But not all the gadgets in the world could save her if she smacked the water hard enough to crack her seagoing hull-or if she caught fire while dumping gasoline, as the Samoan Clipper, with Captain Musick and a crew of six, did last January off Samoa...
...from coming through. More alarmingly, a native was said to have reported he had seen fire in the sky and smoke on the water off Samoa. And then the Avocet, following streaks of oil floating on the long ocean swells, came upon what was left of the $320,000 Samoan Clipper 14 miles northwest of Pago Pago-a drawer, pieces of a coat, pages of the engineering log, part of the navigating desk, a pair of trousers. The debris, blown to bits, riddled with holes and imbedded with duralumin powder indicated a terrific mid-air explosion with instant death...
...with Pan American Airways is grieved beyond expression. . . . The death of Captain Musick and his crew is an irreparable blow to our company and will be a distinct loss to American aviation. Captain Musick contributed much to American prestige in the air." In President Trippe's opinion, "The Samoan Clipper was destroyed by fire of unknown origin . . . incidental to the discharge of fuel." What caused the fire? A few theorists jumped to the "static spark" conclusion advanced as a cause of the Hindenburg's explosion last year at Lakehurst. But most experts accepted a simpler explanation-that flame...