Pan Am Flight 816 was an international flight from Auckland, New Zealand, to San Francisco, California, via Tahiti, French Polynesia and Los Angeles. It was operated by a Pan Am Boeing 707-321B bearing the registration N417PA and named Clipper Winged Racer. On July 22, 1973, at 10:06 P.M. local time, the Boeing 707 took off from Faa'a International Airport in Papeete. Thirty seconds after takeoff, the airliner, carrying 79 passengers and crew, crashed into the sea. Aircraft and crew N417PA (serial number 18959, manufacturing serial number) had its maiden flight on February 25, 1966, and was delivered to Pan Am on May 21. It was powered by four Pratt & Whitney JT3D-3B turbofan engines. The captain was Robert M. Evarts of Grass Valley, California, 59, who had 25,275 flight hours, including 8,384 hours on the Boeing 707. Evarts's first officer was Lyle C. Havens, 59, from Medford, Oregon, who had 21,575 flight hours, with 9,248 of them on the Boeing 707. The flight engineer was Isaac N. Lambert, 34, of Danville, California (9,134 flight hours, 4,760 of which were on the Boeing 707). The navigator was Frederick W. Fischer, 32, of Rochester, New York. He had 3,961 flight hours, including 3,945 of them on the Boeing 707. Preceding events The first leg of the flight from Auckland to Papeete was mainly uneventful. However, after landing, the flight crew reported a crack in the cockpit windshield. Procedures (at the time) considered this a minor problem and allowed pilots to continue flying. Nevertheless, the crew notified airline officials in New York City about the issue and requested permission to continue the flight, which was granted. Captain Evarts decided to have the aircraft loaded with additional fuel, expecting a lower flight altitude than usual. of fuel were loaded instead of the planned . The communication with New York City and the extra refueling delayed the flight past its intended departure time of 20:30 by 90 minutes. The aircraft weighed from the extra fuel. The engines burned of fuel before takeoff, decreasing the aircraft's weight to . The weather consisted of rain (with stratus and cumulonimbus clouds at and , respectively), wind blowing from the Southwest, a visibility of , atmospheric pressure of 1013 mb and an outside air temperature of . The aircraft would takeoff from the runway 08. The V speeds were the following: V1 = VR = V2 = Accident description