Pan American World Airways Flight 202 was a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser aircraft that crashed in the Amazon Basin about 281 nautical miles (320 mi; 520 km) southwest of Carolina, Brazil, on April 29, 1952. The accident happened en route from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, during the third leg of a four-leg journey. All 50 people on board were killed in the deadliest-ever accident involving the Boeing 377. The investigation took place under exceptionally unfavorable conditions, and the exact cause of the crash was not established. However, it was theorized based on an examination of the wreckage that an engine had separated in flight after propeller blade failure.
Aircraft The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser registration N1039V, christened Clipper Good Hope, made its first flight on September 28, 1949. At the time of the accident, it had accumulated a total of 6,944 airframe hours in flight. It was equipped with four 28-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial piston engines, each with a Hamilton Standard Model 24260 four-blade propeller. The propeller blades were constructed with a rubber core filling a steel shell, which was later identified as a design prone to structural failure.
Flight and disappearance Flight 202 was an international scheduled passenger flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to New York City, New York, with three en route stops scheduled at Montevideo, Uruguay; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. It began its route on the evening of April 28, 1952, in Buenos Aires, and after stopping off in Montevideo, it arrived in Rio de Janeiro at 1:05 a.m. local time (04:05 UTC) on April 29. It departed Rio less than two hours later, at 2:43 a.m. (05:43 UTC), heading for Port of Spain on the third leg of its journey. It was cleared to fly an off-airways route directly to Port of Spain, which took it over the dense forests of the Amazon jungle that were still unexplored at the time. The flight reported abeam the city of Barreiras in eastern Brazil at 6:16 a.m. local time (09:16 UTC), flying at 14,500 feet (4,400 m) under VFR conditions; the pilots estimated that the next position report would be at 7:45 a.m. (10:45 UTC), abeam the city of Carolina in the northeastern state of Maranhão, Brazil. This was the last known message from the flight. Witnesses in the villages of Formosa and São Francisco reported seeing the aircraft overhead at about the time it reported abeam Barreiras; they described the aircraft as operating normally. When the aircraft failed to report abeam Carolina and then abeam the city of Santarém in northern Brazil, local authorities initiated a missing aircraft alert.
Search and discovery
Brazilian Air Force, United States Air Force, and United States Navy aircraft searched the jungle, while Brazilian Navy ships searched the coastal areas off northern South America. The wreckage was not found until May 1, when a Pan American Curtiss Commando freighter reported finding it in Caraja Indian territory 281 nautical miles (520 km) southwest of Carolina. "The burned, broken wreckage of the Pan American Stratocruiser that vanished Monday night was found in northern Brazil today," reported The New York Times in its May 2, 1952, issue. There was no evidence that any of the 50 people on board, including 19 Americans, lived through the crash. An air hunt over 320,000 square miles (830,000 km2) of jungle, river basins and plateau land finally located the ruins in the Indian country between the cities of Barreiras and Carolina. According to airline officials, Capt. Jim Kowing of Miami piloted a C-46 Pan American cargo plane that made the discovery. The scene is about 250 miles (220 nmi; 400 km) southwest of Carolina, a Tocantins River town 1,100 miles (960 nmi; 1,800 km) north-northwest of Rio de Janeiro. The double-decked Stratocruiser was reported to have broken in two; its charred wreckage was scattered on both sides of a 1,500-foot-high (460 m) hill. Pan American officials said a Panair do Brasil airliner circled the scene of the crash; its pilot reported extensive evidence of fire and said he saw two of the big plane's engines lying 1,600 feet (490 m) apart in the hilly, heavily wooded area. Maj. Richard Olney of the US Air Force base in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Maj. Oliver Seaman, an Air Force flight surgeon, oversaw the conversion of a Pan American passenger plane to carry a seven-person rescue team. Pan American's office at Miami reported that, after circling the scene for four hours, the rescue plane returned to its base at Para without dropping the rescue team. It said they did not jump because there were no signs of survivors.
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