Pan Am Flight 1-10
Pan American World Airways Lockheed L-049-51-26 Constellation · Controlled flight into terrain due to mechanical and/or electrical failure
From San Francisco to New York City
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 30 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 31
- Survivors
- 1
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 1
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Lockheed L-049-51-26 Constellation
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed L-049
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- NC88858
- Operator
- Pan American World Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- 30
- Route
- From San FranciscoTo New York City
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Environmental issues › Task environment
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Pan Am Flight 1-10 was a Pan American passenger flight from London to Shannon Airport, part of a flight around the world from San Francisco, California, to New York City. On 15 April 1948, the Lockheed Constellation serving the flight crashed 725 m short of Runway 23 at Shannon. Ten flight crew and 20 passengers died in the crash; 1 passenger survived with minor injuries.
Investigation and cause
Cause of the accident
The U.S. Civil Aeronautics Board investigated the crash and published its findings on 24 June 1948: The Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the continuation of an instrument approach to an altitude insufficient to clear the terrain. A contributing factor may have been the failure of the pilot's instrument fluorescent light. The flight crew had earlier reported trouble with the pilot's instrument fluorescent light. At earlier stops in Brussels and London this light had failed too, but the maintenance crew in London could not repair it due to lack of spare parts.
Shannon Airport had earlier reported a fire in its ILS system, causing the system to fail. By the time the "Clipper Empress of the Skies" arrived, the system was again fully functional.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Pan Am Flight 1-10” (revision 1370686526, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Pan Am Flight 1-10
- Article
- Pan Am Flight 1-10
- Revision
- 1370686526 · 2026-08-22 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q7129554
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Pan Am Flight 1-10" (page 32682158, revision 1370686526)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- flight number in the article title
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.