The star-crossed history of the Clipper Victor
Unexpected greatness and tragedy define Pan Am Jumbo Jet 747-121 N736PA.
Pan Am’s Boeing 747 Clipper Victor was not supposed to make the trip.
That honor — the honor of inaugurating the first commercial flight of a Jumbo Jet — belonged to the Clipper Young America, which only days earlier had been christened by First Lady Pat Nixon at Washington Dulles International Airport. The Clipper Young America was being readied for its inaugural flight from New York’s JFK to London’s Heathrow, scheduled to take place on January 21, 1970.
Trouble on the tarmac
Departure time for the Clipper Young America was 7:00 PM. The giant aircraft had taxied to the runway with 352 passengers and a crew of 20 on board when it was discovered that one of the engines was overheating. The flight had to be aborted. Thankfully, another 747, the Clipper Victor (Boeing 747-121 N736PA) was available. Recognizing the kind of complications that could accompany a switch of aircraft for such a widely publicized First Flight, the name “Victor” was discreetly painted out and “Young America” painted in. The newly christened aircraft officially lifted off at 1:52 AM, arriving in London 6 hours and 10 minutes later. Despite the delay, passengers appeared to have enjoyed their participation in a classic aviation drama guaranteed to go down in history. Although the original “Young America” began regular service to London on the next scheduled flight out of JFK, “Clipper Victor’s” place in history had been assured.
Seven months later…in Miami…
The Clipper Victor found itself making headlines again. It had earned another “first,” but this time the reason was more sinister. On August 2nd, only seven months after its inaugural triumph, it became the first 747 to be hijacked and forced to fly to Cuba. Castro himself was at the airport to meet it. We will let the excellent Miami Herald tell the story:
Reprinted from The Miami Herald, August 3, 1970
Hijacked Jumbo Jet Draws Castro Visit
By COLIN DANGAARD Herald Staff Writer
The world’s first hijacked Boeing 747 jumbo jet – met in Havana by Cuban Premier Fidel Castro himself – landed safely in San Juan Sunday with 359 passengers, 19 crew and two FBI agents.
A bearded man with a gun and a package he said contained nitroglycerine took control of the Pan American Airways 747 on a flight from New York to San Juan, Puerto Rico. At New York’s Kennedy International Airport, officials were unable to explain how the gun-toting hijacker apparently slipped unnoticed past metal detectors. They were also mystified about how he apparently failed to attract attention in the first-class compartment, dressed as he was. The highjacker, about 30 years old and wearing military fatigues and a beret, forced a stewardess to take him to the captain.
Pan Am officials said the hijacker, who boarded the plane as a first-class passenger, drew a gun on one of the stewardesses and demanded that he be taken to the captain. They walked from the first-class passenger compartment, up a flight of stairs to the plane’s cocktail lounge, and up to the captain’s compartment. In the cockpit, the hijacker, who also carried a Cuban flag, ordered the pilot, Capt. Augustus Watkins, to fly to Havana. At 3:49 a.m., when the plane was 200 miles northwest of the Puerto Rican capital, Watkins radioed that he was heading for Cuba.
The jumbo jet touched down at Jose Marti Airport, Havana, about 5:15 a.m. The hijacker walked off, and Fidel Castro and an interpreter walked on, Watkins told reporters in San Juan. The Cuban premier went straight up to the cockpit and introduced himself to Watkins, took a long look at the massive control panel, and asked: “How’s it work?” For a moment Watkins said he didn’t know where to start, but he explained a number of the instruments. “Castro also asked how much fuel the plane used, how many people it carried and seemed very interested in the mechanics of everything,” Watkins said. “He was particularly interested in whether or not there would be any danger to passengers while taking off on the runway. He asked for an assurance that everything would be all right and when I gave it to him he looked around again, said, ‘all right, you can go now’ and then walked back through the plane.”
Capt. Watkins said Castro seemed to have basic knowledge of flying. On the way out, Castro stopped, looked up and down and said: “Yes, she’s a nice flying bird.”
Castro did not mention the hijacker and Capt. Watkins said he decided not to bring up the subject himself.
At Jose Marti two of the jet’s four engines were kept running, because the airport does not have facilities to restart the jumbo engines for take-off. Only the pilot and the hijacker got off the plane in Cuba during its 30-minute stay there, much shorter than the usual time airliners are held in Cuba after hijackings.
The 747 left Havana at 6:23 a.m. and flew to Miami to refuel. It taxied to an isolated Pan Am runway and was boarded by 10 FBI agents. Two accompanied the plane to San Juan. The Pan American spokesman in Miami, Robert Bohne, said the pilot told him during the stopover that the hijacker “looked like Che Guevara.” Guevara was a Castro lieutenant in the Revolution who later was killed in Bolivia. The only passenger who got off in Miami was the pilot’s wife — to briefly walk her two Pekinese pups.
Less than an hour after landing, the 747 left for San Juan. When it arrived another team of federal agents went aboard to interrogate the passengers. The agents told reporters waiting at San Juan airport not to talk with passengers on Flight 299 and then asked the captain to “tell the press everything.” Watkins admitted he had moments of fear on the unscheduled Cuban flight. The plane was commandeered at 33,000 feet over the Atlantic. “I was concerned for the safety of the passengers,” he said. “I did everything the hijacker asked me to do. Right now, I’m exhausted and all I want to do is go to bed and get some sleep. I’ve been awake 26 hours.”
If Capt. Watkins felt the strain, at least one of his stewardesses didn’t. “Ah,” she said, “it was just like any other hijacking.”
Many of the passengers were sleeping when the plane was hijacked. They didn’t know they were in Cuba until they awoke and looked out the window.
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Tragedy in Tenerife
On March 27, 1977, tragedy engulfed the Clipper Victor. Pan Am Boeing 747-121 N736PA was destroyed in the world’s deadliest aviation accident, the Tenerife airport disaster.
A KLM Boeing 747 attempting to take off at Los Rodeos Airport, Tenerife, Canary Islands, without clearance from the airport’s air traffic controllers, collided with Clipper Victor on the runway. The accident claimed 583 lives.
Both planes had been diverted to Tenerife due to a terrorist bombing at their original destination, Gran Canaria Airport. Los Rodeos had consequently become severely congested, forcing aircraft to taxi on the runway. Dense fog limited visibility. Both aircraft erupted in flames upon impact. All the KLM passengers perished. 61 Pan Am passengers survived.
The Clipper Victor is an achingly sad reminder that history can reflect both the best and the worst of times in a single example — in this case, a Pan Am Jumbo Jet that will be forever linked to triumph and turmoil.
Up Next: European Airbus A300 makes U.S. debut — in Miami, of course