1939 Pan Am Sikorsky S-43 crash
| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | August 13, 1939 |
| Summary | Engine failure resulting in a loss of control |
| Site | Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Passengers | 12 |
| Crew | 4 |
| Fatalities | 14 |
| Survivors | 2 |
| Aircraft type | Sikorsky S-43B |
| Operator | Pan Am |
| Registration | NC16933 |
| Flight origin | Miami International Airport, Miami, Florida, U.S. |
| Destination | Santos Dumont Airport, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
The 1939 Pan Am Sikorsky S-43 crash occurred on August 13, 1939, when a Pan Am Sikorsky S-43B aircraft en route from Miami to Rio de Janeiro crashed into Rio's Guanabara Bay, killing 14 of the 16 people on board.[1]
Flight history
The aircraft involved was a three-year-old Sikorsky S-43B airliner registered NC16933. It had first flown in 1936, and had accumulated a total of 3,650 flight hours during its career.[2]
The aircraft took off from Miami on a scheduled international passenger flight to Rio de Janeiro, with many stopovers across the Caribbean and South America. As it neared its destination, the aircraft circled Rio in preparation for a normal approach. As it was circling, however, the left engine lost power, putting the aircraft into a descending left yaw turn. As the yaw grew sharper, the pitch angle also steepened until the aircraft struck a caisson and crashed into Guanabara Bay, about one kilometer from Rio's Santos Dumont Airport. Of the twelve passengers and four crew members, only two passengers survived.[3]