Pan Am Flight 812, operated by a Pan Am Boeing 707 registered N446PA and named Clipper Climax, was a scheduled international flight from Hong Kong to Los Angeles, California, with intermediate stops at Denpasar, Sydney, Nadi, and Honolulu. On April 22, 1974, the aircraft crashed into rough mountainous terrain while preparing for a runway 09 approach to Denpasar after a 4-hour 20-minute flight from Hong Kong. All 107 people on board perished. The location of the accident was about 42.5 nautical miles (48.9 mi; 78.7 km) northwest of Ngurah Rai International Airport. Until the 1991 Jakarta Indonesian Air Force C-130 crash, it was the deadliest aviation accident to happen on Indonesian soil.
Flight 812, a regularly scheduled flight from Hong Kong to Los Angeles via Bali, Sydney, Nadi, and Honolulu, departed Hong Kong on April 22, 1974, at 11:08 UTC (7:08 pm Hong Kong time). The estimated flying time to Bali was 4 hours and 23 minutes. At 15:23 UTC (12:23 am Bali time in 1974), Flight 812 was on final approach to Bali. The aircraft reported reaching 2,500 feet (760 m). The Bali Tower gave instructions to continue the approach and to report when the runway was in sight. Acknowledgement was made by Flight 812 by saying, "Check inbound". At 15:26 the pilot-in-command requested the visibility by calling, "Hey – Tower, what is your visibility out there now?"
However, according to the transcription of Air Traffic Control voice recorder this message was never received by the Bali Tower. Apparently this was the last message transmitted by the aircraft. The Bali Tower kept trying to contact the aircraft by calling, "Clipper eight one two, Bali Tower", and "Clipper eight one two, Bali Tower, how do you read", several times. However, no answer was received from the aircraft. It was subsequently found that the aircraft had hit a mountain approximately 37 miles (60 km) northwest of the Bali airport.
Once Bali control tower lost contact with the plane and declared that the plane was missing, Indonesian paratroops and authorities were immediately deployed to the area. The last contact established by Flight 812 was at Mesehe Mountain, a dormant volcano located near the airport.
The wreckage was found a day later by two local villagers. They reported that there were no survivors.
Evacuation of the bodies was hampered due to the terrain of the crash site. Indonesian Army officers stated that the rescue operation would take four or five days. On April 25, around 300 rescuers were deployed onto the crash site. The Army later stated that they had recovered around 43 bodies.
The aircraft involved was a Boeing 707-321B, registered as N446PA, which was manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in 1965. It had logged about 28000 total airframe hours and 9150 takeoff and landing cycles and was equipped with four Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3B engines.
The aircraft was briefly featured in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, shown offloading Wonka Bars under armed guard.
There were 96 passengers from 9 countries on board. 70 passengers were bound for Bali. 24 were bound for Sydney. 2 were bound for Nadi. Pan Am reported that about seventy passengers were tourists bound for a holiday in Bali.
Several memorial plaques are to be found for this crash in Jl. Padang Galak, next to the beach Temple, Kesiman, Denpasar East, Indonesia.
The pilot in command was 52-year old Captain Donald Zinke. He had flown a total of 18,247 hours including 7,192 hours in Boeing 707/720 aircraft. He held a DC-4 aircraft rating and a Boeing 707 aircraft rating. The co-pilot was 40-year-old First Officer John Schroeder. He held a valid Boeing 707 rating and had a total flying hours of 6,312 hours including 4,776 hours in Boeing 707/720 aircraft. The other pilot was 38-year old Third Officer Melvin Pratt, held a valid Commercial pilot's licence and a current instrument rating. At the time of the accident, he had flown a total of 4,255 hours including 3,964 hours in Boeing 707/720 aircraft. The other cockpit crew members were 48-year-old Flight Engineer Timothy Crowley and 43-year old Flight Engineer Edward Keating.
Multiple eyewitnesses stated that the plane was on fire before it struck the Mesehe Mountain. Others stated that Captain Zinke was trying to land from the northwest, where the mountains were located, rather than the usual route (from the east). The east side didn't have any steep terrain. They also stated that the plane exploded shortly after it struck the mountain. There were also reports that the plane was circling during the accident. Pan American Airways initially declined to comment on the cause of the crash, saying that they would wait for the result of the investigation.
As the aircraft was registered in the United States, the NTSB was called in to investigate the crash. The FBI also assisted in the identification of the victims.
The FBI set up a crisis camp in a hangar in Denpasar. At the time, only 10 percent of Americans were fingerprinted. The identifications were hampered by the Indonesian Government's decision to stop the identification of the victims and the investigation of the crash.
The flight data recorder was recovered on 16 July and the cockpit voice recorder was found on 18 July 1974. The CVR was recovered in good condition, while the FDR had some damage on its outer case due to the crash.
Examination on the wreckage of Flight 812 concluded that the plane didn't break up in flight, as the debris of the plane were concentrated in a specific area, rather than dispersed. The NTSB didn't find engine malfunctions, and added that they didn't find evidence that may indicate that the plane was not airworthy.
Sequence of events based on the final report
The following sequence of events were based on the final report: