Pacific Clipper

The Boeing 314 with civil registration NC18602 was delivered to Pan American; it made its shakedown flight from San Francisco, United States to Hong Kong from February 23 to March 3, 1939. ==Flight==

On December 2, 1941, the Clipper departed from the Pan American base on Treasure Island, San Francisco for its scheduled passenger service to Auckland, New Zealand. It landed at Pan American's LaGuardia Field seaplane base in New York City five weeks later, at 7:12 on the morning of January 6, 1942. Crew • Captain Robert Ford • First Officer John H. Mack • Second Officer/Navigator Roderick N. Brown • Third Officer James G. Henriksen • Fourth Officer John D. Steers • First Engineer Homans K. "Swede" Roth • Second Engineer John B. "Jocko" Parish • First Radio Officer John Poindexter* • Second Radio Officer Oscar Hendrickson • Radio Operator Edward Leach** • Purser Barney Sawicki • Asst Purser Verne C. Edwards Poindexter departed Treasure Island, California as an observer tasked with validating the performance of a new radio set; for that leg of the journey, Hendrickson was first radio officer and the second radio officer position was vacant. Upon arrival in San Pedro, California, Captain Ford learned that the man who was supposed in serve as second radio officer was hospitalized and Poindexter, who was senior to Hendrickson, agreed to continue on the trans-Pacific journey, becoming the first radio officer. Leach was a staff passenger, originally being transported from Nouméa, New Caledonia to Auckland, New Zealand. After boarding in Nouméa, Leach remained with the aircraft until its arrival in New York. Scheduled points • San Pedro, California, United States on December 2, 1941, where the designated second radio officer was scheduled to join the crew; Ford learned that the man had been hospitalized. When informed of the need, Poindexter agreed to continue the flight. • Honolulu, Hawaii for crew rest. • Canton Island for fuel. • Suva, Fiji for fuel. • Nouméa, New Caledonia for fuel. • Auckland, New Zealand for termination and return to California. When the aircraft was between Nouméa and Auckland, Ford learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. He opened his instructions labelled "Plan A" and learned that he was to land at Auckland and await further instructions. from Auckland to New York. Post-mission debriefings Ford was debriefed by the Chief of Naval Operations. He reported spotting the Japanese submarine near Sri Lanka and his encounter with the crews of the Navy PBYs. ==Aftermath==

After the aircraft had completed its harrowing flight to safety, Pan American renamed the aircraft the Pacific Clipper. The name change was mainly for publicity purposes, arising from the first newspaper articles having wrongly identified the aircraft. On 30/31 January 1942, the Pacific Clipper transported Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles from the Pan-American emergency defense conference at Rio de Janeiro to Miami, covering the 4,350 miles in a record 33 hours. The black and grey camouflaged ship carried 39 passengers. After the war, in 1946, it was sold to Universal Airlines but was damaged in a storm and ultimately salvaged for parts in 1951. ==Aircraft identification==

It has been suggested that two aircraft might have been involved in the extended flight: NC18606 from California to Hawaii and NC18602 from Hawaii to New York. ==References==