First Chief Executive of PATCO: Michael J. Rock (1939-2004)
 

February 21, 1968 - A successful hijacking of a DC-8 took place from Tampa, Florida to Havana, Cuba. the hijacker surrendered in Spain and was committed to a mental institution.

March 12, 1968 - Three Cubans successfully hijacked a DC-8 from Tampa FL to Havana, Cuba.
 

May 3, 1968 - - Texas

   May 3, 1968 - Dawson, TX - Braniff Airlines Lockheed L-188 Electra broke up in mid air and crashed after flying into a severe thunderstorm, killing all 85 people including several doctors and their wives returning to Dallas from a conference in Houston, a number of federal government workers and a half dozen soldiers. (85 Fatalities)

The accident was caused by the captain's decision to penetrate an area of heavy weather followed by a structural over-stress and failure of the airframe while attempting recovery from loss of control during a steep 180 degree turn executed in an attempt to escape the weather. The turn became extremely steep, with a bank of over 90 degrees and a nose pitch down of 50 degrees.

As they were trying to recover from the turn, the Flight Data Recorder indicated a peak acceleration of 4.3Gs, which the NTSB concluded caused a structural overstress and in-flight breakup.
 

July 17, 1968 - Another Cuban successfully hijacked a DC-8 from Los Angeles, CA to Havana, Cuba.
 

 

The Federal Air Marshal Service promotes confidence in civil aviation by deploying Air Marshals to detect, deter, and defeat hostile acts against the United States.

September, 1968 - The First Boeing-747 (490 passengers) rolled out of the Everett, Washington assembly building, and the first flight of the B-747 (the world's largest commercial jetliner) took place on February 9, 1969.

The B-747 is also known as: "Jumbo Jet", or "Queen of the Skies." The original version of the B-747 was two and a half times the size of the B-707, and had a double deck configuration. The 'hump-like' upper deck served as a first class lounge, or extra seating. The B-747-8 has an intercontinental range of over 8,000 miles and a high-subsonic cruise speed of Mach 0.85 (up to 570 mph), and depending on seating configuration, can carry over 660 passengers. By December 2011 over 1,500 B-747s were built.
 

B-747SP

The B-747SP is 48 feet shorter than the B-747-100 and entered service by Pan Am on February 4, 1976. The SP stands for "Special Performance" and was used by airlines for ultra-long-range flights, to serve major airports with shorter runways. A total of 45 B-747SPs were built.

In 1976 the B-747SP set a new round-the-world record (over 23.137 miles) in 46 hours and 26 minutes with 2 stops (India and Japan).
 

AIR FORCE ONE

The "Air Force One" callsign is the official air traffic control call sign for any Air Force aircraft carrying the President of the United States. The "Air Force One" callsign was created after a 1953 incident when a flight carrying President Eisenhower entered the same airspace as a commercial airline flight using the same call sign.

The presidential version of the B-747 (Military designation: VC-15) was designed during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. (The interior design was drawn up by Nancy Reagan). On January 15, 1970, First Lady of the United States Pat Nixon christened Pan Am's first B-747 at Dulles Airport. The first two B-747s were delivered in 1990, during the administration of George H. W. Bush.

SHUTTLE CARRIER AIRCRAFT (SCA)

The SCA's were used to ferry Space Shuttles from landing sites back to the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Flying with the additional drag and weight the range was reduced to 1,000 nautical miles and required stops several times to refuel on a transcontinental flight.

"SKYFARING" 
New book (2015) now available on Amazon.com

"The wonder of air travel, from the cockpit of a B-747."

http://www.skyfaring.com/
 

August 6, 1968 - - New Hampshire

   August 6, 1968 - Moose Mountain, New Hampshire - A Northeast Airlines Fairchild Hiller F-227 crashed on Moose Mountain while descending on approach. The crash killed 32 of 42 passengers and crew. Ten passengers survived the crash with minor or moderate injuries. They were at the rear of the plane and were able to escape through the rear emergency exit or through the fractures in the fuselage. (32 Fatalities)

The NTSB reported that the plane was flying 600' below its required altitude and that the pilots misjudged their altitude position during approach and there were no navigational aids in the aircraft or near the airport.

This was the fifth airline crash in the 25-year history of Northeast Airlines. They had lost four planes and 38 passengers and crew. In the 1970s Northeast merged with Delta Airlines.
 

 November 22, 1968 - - San Francisco Bay

    November 22, 1968 - A Japan Airlines DC-8, in heavy fog and other factors crash landed the jet  in the waters of San Francisco Bay, 2 1/2 miles short of the runway. The water was shallow (about 9 feet deep), and once the landing gear settled into the mud of the bay, all passengers were safely evacuated.

None of the 96 passengers and 11 crew were killed or injured, and the DC-8 jet was recovered and transported on a barge to San Francisco International Airport, where United Airlines refurbished the aircraft for service and returned it to JAL in 1969, along with a $4 million repair bill.
 

November 24, 1968 - Three Latinos successfully hijacked a Pan Am B-707 from JFK to Havana, Cuba. Passengers were evacuated from Cuba by a U.S. State Department aircraft.

November 30, 1968 - A Cuban successfully hijacked a B-720 from Miami to Havana, Cuba.
 

December 11, 1968 - Two people successfully hijacked a DC-8 from St. Louis MO to Havana, Cuba
 

Also in 1968, at Indianapolis ARTCC and later at New York ARTCC, the system was reconfigured as ARTS-I, and the FAA contracted with Univac for production of the data acquisition, data processing and data-entry display functions of a larger versions for the nation's busiest terminal control facilities, ARTS-III.
 

January 2 1969 - Two people successfully hijacked a DC-8 from New York to Havana, Cuba.
 

January 6, 1969 - - Pennsylvania

    January 6, 1969 - Another Allegheny Airlines Convair CV-580 crashed near Bradford Airport, PA. (See December 24, 1968) The pilot requested to make its instrument approach to Runway 14 instead of Runway 32. The Bradford FSS Specialist obtained approval for this change from Erie Approach Control, and the flight reported completing the procedure turn inbound. The CV-580 then clipped treetops 4.7 miles short of the airport and cut a swath through trees bordering a fairway of the Pine Acres Golf Course, and came to rest inverted.

The NTSB was unable to determine precisely the probable cause. However, potential causes include:

1. Misreading of the altimeter by the captain.
2. A malfunction of the captain's altimeter after completion of the approach procedure turn.
3. A misreading of the instrument approach chart.

(11 Fatalities) of the 28 people on board)
 

January 9, 1969 - A Purdue University student successfully hijacked a B-727 from Miami, FL to Havana, Cuba. He returns via Canada in November and is sentenced to 20 years for air piracy.

January 11, 1969 - A man successfully hijacks a B-727 from Jacksonville, FL to Havana, Cuba, returned via Canada and is acquitted on grounds of temporary insanity.
 

January 17, 1969 - A Latino from Dominican Republic successfully hijacked a DC-8 from New York to Cuba.
 

January 18, 1969 - - California

   January 18, 1969 - Los Angeles, CA - A United Airlines B-727, from Los Angeles to Milwaukee with a stop in Denver, crashed into Santa Monica Bay shortly after takeoff at night in poor weather. The #3 electrical generator was listed as inoperative before the flight commenced.

After takeoff, the flight crew received an engine fire warning on the #1 engine, which was shut down. The #2 electrical generator (the only one left functioning) was unable to handle the excess load due to the failure of the jet's other two generators, and shut down, leading to a loss of all electrical power aboard the jet.

With the loss of all power to the lights and flight attitude instruments, while flying at night in instrument conditions, the pilots quickly became spatially disorientated and helpless to know what inputs to the flight controls were necessary to keep the jet flying in the normal, upright attitude. Consequently they lost complete control of the jet and it crashed while in an abnormal attitude. (38 Fatalities)
 

    January 22, 1969 - John Anthony Volpe former Governor of Massachusetts (61st and 63rd), became the 2nd United States Secretary of Transportation. (From 1973 to 1977, Volpe served as United States Ambassador to Italy.)

In 1956, Volpe was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as the first administrator of the Federal Highway Administration.

January 24, 1969 - A 19-year-old Navy deserter (who didn't want to go to Vietnam) successfully hijacked a
B-727 from Key West, FL to Havana, Cuba.

January 28, 1969 - Two prison escapees successfully hijacked a DC-8 from Los Angeles, CA to Cuba.

January 28, 1969 - Three men successfully hijacked a DC-8 from Atlanta, GA to Havana, Cuba.

January 31, 1969 - A man from San Francisco said he was 'tired of TV dinners and tired of seeing people starve in the world' and successfully hijacked a DC-8 to Havana, Cuba.
 

He attended the U.S. Military Academy, the Air Force Institute of Technology and Columbia University.

The Common IFR Room at JFK International Airport consolidated control facilities at JFK, Newark, and La Guardia airports. Controllers working different control areas were now able to shift boundaries and buffers almost instantaneously. Older controllers often refer to the "Common I", which is now called N90 ("En Ninety") or New York TRACON.
 

    June 17, 1969 - FAA Administrator John Shaffer opposed the bill. He characterized controllers as "well-paid" considering their educational level.

  Also on June 17, 1969 - PATCO counsel F. Lee Bailey appeared on the NBC "Tonight Show" and told host Johnny Carson, "I'd start walking if I were you."

Boxer, Rocky Marciano

   August 31, 1969 - Newton, IA - Boxer, Rocky Marciano 45, was killed when an inexperienced pilot without an instrument rating, flying a Cessna-172, took off in rainy weather and crashed. Marciano was returning home for his birthday party. (3 killed).

The Superfight: A fictional boxing match between Rocky Marciano and Mohammad Ali. At the time, Ali and Marciano were the only undefeated heavyweight champions in history. They were filmed acting out every possible scenario in a fight and the result was determined using probability formulas entered into a computer.

Punch-by-punch details of the boxer's records during their prime were entered into a computer. Also their strengths, weaknesses, fighting styles and patterns and other factors were converted into formulas.

In 1969, an imaginary fight took place to determine the all-time great heavyweight champion of the world. The two fighters sparred for about 70 rounds, which were later spliced together according to the findings of the computer.

Marciano died in a plane crash 3 weeks after the film was completed. It was shown only once in 1,500 theaters and on closed-circuit TV. It grossed $5 million. The computer determined that Marciano would knock Ali out in the 13th round and the film was edited to present that outcome.
 

   September 9, 1969 - Fairland, Indiana - A Mid-Air collision between an Allegheny DC-9, from Boston to St. Louis with stops in Baltimore, Cincinnati and Indianapolis, and a single engine Piper Cherokee PA-28 during an approach to Indianapolis.

The Piper was leased to a student pilot making a solo cross-country flight and the pilot was not in communication with air traffic control and did not have a transponder. The PA-28's left forward side, just forward of the left wing root, clipped the DC-9's upper right vertical tail just below the horizontal stabilizer.

All 4 crew members and 78 passengers on the DC-9 and two occupants of the Piper were killed. Failure of both pilots to see and avoid while operating under VFR.   (84 Fatalities)

The probable cause was the deficiency in the the collision avoidance capability of the air traffic control system in a terminal area where there is mixture of IFR and VFR traffic.
 

Consequently the FAA, to increase radar visibility of lower and slower small aircraft, required that transponders be installed in general aviation aircraft and all commercial air carrier aircraft.  Additionally, to operate with in a Terminal Controlled Airspace, all aircraft must be transponder equipped and in communication with ATC.