Clipper Victor – a sad Boeing 747-121
Clipper Victor was a Boeing 747-121 which began service with Pan American World Airways in 1970. It was the first Boeing 747 to operate a scheduled commercial service and is notable for its brief but significant history.
The aircraft’s tail number was N736PA, and Clipper Victor was its original name. Renamed Clipper Young America, N736PA was the first Boeing 747 to make a commercial flight, flying from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to London Heathrow Airport, after the planned aircraft (originally also named Clipper Young America) developed a mechanical problem.
In its first year of service, N736PA also became the first 747 to be hijacked, when it was flown to Cuba on August 2, 1970. Following this incident, the aircraft’s name was changed back to Clipper Victor.
On March 27, 1977, Clipper Victor was destroyed in the world’s deadliest aviation accident, the Tenerife airport disaster, when a KLM Boeing 747 attempted to take off at Los Rodeos Airport, Tenerife, Canary Islands without clearance from the airport’s air traffic controllers and collided with Clipper Victor on the runway.
583 people were killed.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/