The Plane that Faced an Invisible Force at New Orleans Airport - Pan Am Flight 759

This Boeing 727 N4737 was forced down by an invisible and poorly understood phenomenon at the time. It happened during the takeoff of a regularly scheduled domestic passenger flight from Miami to San Diego, with en route stops in New Orleans and Las Vegas.

[craigjones]

I was working at Eastern Air Lines in their flight simulator department at the time. Once the downburst velocity was estimated, we programmed it into one of our 727 simulators. Our simulation showed that our 727's could have flown out of the same conditions, but Eastern's 727's had more powerful engines than PanAm 727's used at the time!!!

[TheTidalwaveDave]

Well done as with all of your videos. As an ex flight attendant for SWA, I was always cognizant of the fact that any flight I worked may be my last. Godspeed to all who were on board that day.

[usmale]

Absolutely horrific, I can't even begin to imagine the terror the pilots faced. Great video and thank you for creating, uploading and sharing!!

[mnztr]

Sad, the pilots were so professional, took all the precautions within their knowledge and still crashed and so many died. When you see so many pilot error accidents, its somehow more bitter when the crew does not make the mistake and still pays the ultimate price. Super high qual vid, the plane looked amazing.

[norbertdx]

Note: all on board and some in the homes passed, but there was a baby girl found alive in the rubble of one of the homes. Melissa "Missy" Trahan-Ferrara, also known as the "Miracle Baby", was the only survivor on the ground when Pan Am Flight 759 crashed into a Kenner, Louisiana neighborhood in 1982:

[biff]

I flew for 16 years. On a leg from Tulsa to Ok city we were descending through 10, 000 feet, seat belt sign was on because there was storm activity in the area. When there was this incredibly loud bang and the aircraft went into a dive. I thought it was a midair collisio and in a minute or so it'll be over. The pilot was finally able to pull the aircraft out of the dive. For the next ten minutes (eternity) he fought to maintain the aircrafts stability though turbulence I didn't think was possible for the fuselage to survive. We finally landed back in Tulsa. What a mess the cabin was. Strangely enough no one screamed. Never before and never since have I experienced anything remotely close to that incident. And I mean remotely. This was 1984 and there weren't any reports of a shear situation and the towers did not detect it. It of course, didn't show on the aircrafts radar. Let me tell you there's no substitute for experience when it comes to piloting modern jet aircraft. The captain had that experience.
Your videos are excellent. Keep them coming.

[borsi]

I found your website only a few hours ago and I can tell you I am very impressed by your contributions, which are also visually very well designed. You get to the point in about 10 minutes videos and I like that. Hopefully you make many other such good videos! All the best to you✌🏼 Bo 🇨🇭

[EasyRhino]

I remember this my dad worked for national airlines when I was young and then they became Pan Am I'll never forget the day my dad came home and told me about it it was a very sad day in the airline industry.

[walterlee]

I was in NOLA that day and had no idea what was going on, except something really bad. The weather/conditions were much worse than the video depicts. I remember it well.

[DrMemory]

You have the nicest, realistic planes of all folks doing this kind of video. 🙂

[rockabyebaby]

Thanks for a fantastic video. Only Hollywood makes films as dramatic as this. I love the aerial shots as the plane rotates ❤❤ 😊😊

[TheLitehart]

This incident was brutal, even by air crash standards. It was sudden, irresistable and merciless, and was no one's fault. That it also involved people on the ground made it even more grotesque. For some reason, seeing those windshield wipers running as the plane taxied, I felt piercingly sad; I can't explain that.

[edwardhale]

An excellent production....visually good. The plane did have a Clipper name...Clipper Defiant

[bruceabrahamsen]

I was flying a Navajo from KBTR to a small airport near navy calendar field at that time of that crash. I picked that storm up on my radar as soon as I was airborne. It was massive. I had to fly about 20 out of my way to get around it and come in from the southeast of new orleans. after I landed my ground crew came and told me pan am had just crashed. I will never forget that day.

[lbowsk]

Minor points... 1. The wipers are ten times louder than these. So loud that they are almost never used while taxiing. Generally used only on short final and during the landing phase. Too damn loud for any other time unless you're in a monsoon type downpour. 2. The strobes on the wings are only used in flight. On for takeoff, off when clearing the runway. 3. "Packs off" takeoff takes bleed air from the APU to power the packs and pressurize the jet. By not using the engine bleeds you "save" more power for thrust and can set a slightly higher power setting for takeoff. Once safely airborne, the engine bleeds are switched back on and the APU is shut down. We knew very little about windshear back then. Now pilots are trained to a much higher degree and with much better info on how to mitigate the effects of windshear. But most importantly, they just don't take off or land when windshear conditions are present or likely on the runway they're using. The first rule is to avoid them. Wait the the storm to pass. Hold either on the ground or in the air until the conditions have improved. There has not been a major accident attributed to windshear in the US since USAir in 1994 (CLT).

[roberthenry]

I have been remiss not to have added a supporting comment on each of these "MPC Flights" videos. Perhaps that is because the videos are so powerful and well done that it is easy to reflect and think about them so intensely that adding a comment slips to a back burner. In any event, all of the MPC videos are absolutely and remarkably outstanding. Thank you MPC for all of your marvelous work. The research, technology, editing and presentation of each video is extraordinarily unique and professional. Cannot thank you enough.

[WendyKS]

This crash was so horrific and heartbreaking but technology was just not as advanced back then as it is today. A video well worth watching in my opinion. Video well done, thanks.

[kcindc]

I remember that day very well. It was a Friday and we happened to be headed to NYC - as it turns out we landed in EWR the same minute PA 759 went down (I realized this from the newspaper the next day). I always knew I’d have a career in aviation and this crash is particularly intriguing. So much learned from it - tho the fact that -27 weighed a hefty 105 tons and was powered by the least-powerful JT8D variant (the dog turd 7B) gave it zero performance margin. In fact the Captain requested they turn off the A/C pacs to allow for higher EPR on engines 1 and 3. He also said not to rotate promptly but let their speed build over Vr. They knew they were going to have a real fight to climb….. sadly they lost. RIP

[freddyhoyt]

I know Pan Am had their share of accidents over the years but I was hired by pan Am in 1987 an I was a flight attendant for them until December 4 1991 when they closed down it was sad it really was a great airline

[dam]

Years ago when we buried my grandfather in Larose, LA; my uncle pointed out to us the tomb of a young woman from there who died in this crash.