1959 Pan Am Douglas DC-6 crash
Pan American World Airways Douglas DC-6B · Propeller failure, engine separation
From Frankfurt 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
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 8
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Douglas DC-6B
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-6
- 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
- N5026K
- Operator
- Pan American World Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Route
- From FrankfurtTo New York City
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft propeller/rotor
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
On June 22, 1959, a Pan Am cargo flight went from Frankfurt to New York City via London Heathrow and Shannon. It caught fire on takeoff from Shannon and was destroyed. All six flight crew and two passengers survived.
Investigation and cause
Cause of the accident
The No. 4 engine suffered a fatigue failure of its No. 1 propeller blade. According to lab results, the blade had previously been bent which resulted "in the disruption of the compressive stresses in the shot peened area of the propeller blade" being the probable cause because the unbalanced loads on the engine mounts resulted in the separation of the entire engine.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1959 Pan Am Douglas DC-6 crash” (revision 1363379873, 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: 1959 Pan Am Douglas DC-6 crash
- Revision
- 1363379873 · 2026-07-09 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q38251992
- 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 "1959 Pan Am Douglas DC-6 crash" (page 55103723, revision 1363379873)
- 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
- operator named as an airline in the infobox
- 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.