Fort-de-France – Saint John’s – Christiansted – San Juan – New York

On September 17, 1965 at 07:25 AM, Fort-de-France – Saint John’s – Christiansted – San Juan – New York experienced a crash involving Boeing 707, operated by Pan American World Airways - PAA, with the event recorded near Mt Soufrière All Montserrat.

The flight was categorized as scheduled revenue flight and the reported phase was flight at a mountains crash site.

30 people were known to be on board, 30 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 9, crew fatalities: 9, passengers on board: 21, passenger fatalities: 21, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. PanAm Flight PA292 was a scheduled service from Fort-de-France, Martinique to New York with en route stops at Saint John's, Antigua, Christiansted, St Croix, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. An IFR flight plan had been filed for the 30-minute leg to Antigua. Cruising altitude would be FL165. The airplane christened 'Clipper Constitution' departed Fort-de-France's runway 27 at 0704LT. Cruising altitude was reached at 0709. The crew established radio contact with the Antigua controller at 0715. The controller cleared the flight to the Coolidge NDB beacon at 2 500 feet and told the crew to report at the beacon outbound leaving 2 500 feet or field in sight. At approximately 0725 the flight reported through FL40 with the field not yet in sight. At the same time the airplane was observed flying along the coast of the island of Montserrat in rain and below the clouds with landing gear down and flaps partially extended. Shortly afterwards the airplane struck a mountain at an elevation of 2 760 feet asl and 242 feet below the summit. The airplane was totally destroyed and all 30 occupants have been killed. Weather was poor at the time of the accident with thunderstorms activity, towering cumulus and heavy rain falls.

Aircraft reference details include registration N708PA, MSN 17586, year of manufacture 1957.