Pan Am Flight 151
Pan Am World Airways Lockheed L-1049 Constellation · Controlled flight into terrain
From Johannesburg, Union of South Africa 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
- 40 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 0
- 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
Lockheed L-1049 Constellation
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed L-1049
- 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
- N88846
- Operator
- Pan Am World Airways
- Onboard fatalities
- 40
- Route
- From Johannesburg, Union of South AfricaTo New York City
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
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 22 June 1951, Pan Am Flight 151, flown by the Lockheed L-049 Constellation propliner Clipper Great Republic (registration N88846) crashed into a West African hill at an elevation of 1050 ft near the village of Sanoyie in Bong County, Liberia. All 31 passengers and nine crew on board were killed.
Sequence of events
The Johannesburg to New York City flight was on the Accra, Gold Coast (now Ghana), to Monrovia, Liberia leg of its journey. At 0301h during a pre-dawn approach to Monrovia's Robertsfield Airport, the flight crew reported to the tower that the radio beacon at Dakar, Senegal was interfering with the Robertsfield radio beacon. After a 0315h weather report was sent to the pilots, all contact with the aircraft was lost. The flight was reported missing at 0410h on June 22, and an aerial search was conducted, but it was unsuccessful in locating the aircraft. At 1430h on June 23, a foot messenger arrived from the village of Sanoyie to report that an aircraft crashed into the side of a hill one day earlier several miles from the village and that everyone aboard was killed.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
It was determined that the location where the flight crashed was beyond the effective range of the Robertsfield beacon. This, combined with the report from the crew that the Dakar beacon was interfering with the Robertsfield beacon, resulted in the frequency of the Robertsfield beacon being changed to provide greater separation of frequencies between the two beacons. Investigation of the wreckage revealed no indications of mechanical malfunction, the aircraft had enough fuel for another eight hours of flight, the weight and disposition of the payload was within allowable limits, and the weather was above minima.
The Civil Aeronautics Board investigation concluded that the probable cause of the accident was the action of the captain in descending below his en route minimum altitude without positive identification of the flight's position.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Pan Am Flight 151” (revision 1343614643, 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 151
- Article
- Pan Am Flight 151
- Revision
- 1343614643 · 2026-03-15 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q7129563
- 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 151" (page 8715074, revision 1343614643)
- 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.