Round-the-World Flights


Unscheduled 1st Commercial Pan Am Round-the World Flight



Page 3b (rev: 1001)

Plane Pix w/Leach autograph Ford's Autograph Captain Ford Anniv. Flown Cover
Pix #1 Pix #2 Pix #3 Pix #4 Pix #5

This round-the-world trip began as a routine flight from San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand. On December 7, 1941 when the Pan Am "Pacific Clipper" was two hours out of Noumea, New Caledonia, Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese. The flight received a coded message, "land at next destination and await instructions." With its route back to the US cutoff, the Pacific Clipper was forced to continue round-the-world making it "the hard way" back to the US. To read a detailed account of Captain Ford's epic journey round-the-world, read "The Long Way Home - Revised Edition" written by Ed Dover.

Passengers: 3, Crew members: 10 including: John Henry Mack (co-pilot), Rod Brown (navigator), John Poindexter (radio operator), Homans "Swede" Rothe & Jocko Parish (flight engineers), John Steers (forth officer) and Eugene R. Leach (supernumerary radio operator).

"Plane touched down on 5 continents, crossed 3 oceans, made 18 stops under the flags of 12 nations, crossed the equator 6 times and spent 209H 30M in the air"

Itinerary of Pan Am's Pacific Clipper Flight Round-the-World

Departed San Francisco, CA                         12/01/41
   San Pedro, CA                                   12/02/41	
   Honolulu, HI 
   Canton Island
   Suva, Fiji
   Noumea, New Caledonia 
   Auckland, New Zealand 
   Noumea, New Caledonia (picked up 22 Pan Am employees for hop to Australia) 
   Gladstone, Australia 
   Port Darwin, Australia 
   Surabaya, Netherlands East Indies 
   Java, Indonesia 
   Trincomalee, Ceylon (two departures because of engine trouble)
   Karachi, Pakistan 
   Bahrain 
   Khartoum, Sudan
   Leopoldville, Belgian Congo
   Natal, Brazil
   Port-of-Spain, Trinidad
Arrived Laguardia Airport, New York City, NY 01/06/42 

40th Anniversary Pan Am Boeing 747 Flight Round-the-World

Departed London, England  12/30/81               Pilot: Capt A.S.Wilson
	San Francisco, CA     12/31/81               Pilot: Capt D.Parsons        
	Honolulu, HI          12/31/81               Pilot: Capt C.H.Stewart
	Auckland, New Zealand 01/02/82               Pilot: Capr R Flinn
	Honolulu, HI          01/02/82               Pilot: Capt R.Thompson
	Tokyo, Japan          01/04/82               Pilot: Capt R.A.Peters
	New York, NY          01/07/82               Pilot: Capt A.Wicksman
	Los Angeles, CA       01/10/82               Pilot: Capt R.Loomis
Arrived London, England   01/10/82        

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