Yesterday I came across a random tweet on X about an incident involving a Pan American Boeing 707 departing from San Francisco International Airport back in 1965.
The incident is seared into my foggy memory banks because the incident occurred one afternoon when I was walking home from high school (we lived in Daly City, California at the time).
I vividly remember seeing that 707 with its wing in flames juxtaposed against the hillside of San Bruno Mountain. It was trailing black smoke and didn’t seem like it was going to make it. I stood there an just stared, feeling totally helpless as there obviously wasn’t anything I could do to help.
I watched as it crossed over and out of my view. I didn’t know what to expect but fortunately there wasn’t any signs of a crash, no column of black smoke coming over the horizon etc.
As the Wikipedia entry describes, the pilots were able to turn the 707 out over the Pacific Ocean, across the Golden Gate and eventually landed at Travis Air Force Base. Fortunately the fire on the wing was extinguished and the landing was without incident.
Funny how these memories come back to you – triggered by serendipity having randomly seen that tweet about this incident which happened sixty years this month!
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