horizontal and vertical tail surfaces, and two of the engines were found within of the crater. A trail of debris from the plane extended as far as from the point of impact. The complete left wingtip was found nearly from the crash site. Parts of the wreckage ripped a hole in a country road, shattered windows in a nearby home, and spread burning jet fuel across a wide area. The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) was notified of the accident and was dispatched from Washington, D.C., to conduct an investigation. Witnesses of the crash described hearing the explosion and seeing the plane in flames as it descended. Of the 140 witnesses interviewed, 99 reported seeing an aircraft or a flaming object in the sky. Seven witnesses stated that they had seen lightning strike the aircraft. Seventy-two witnesses said that the ball of fire occurred at the same time as, or immediately after, the lightning strike. Twenty-three witnesses reported that the aircraft exploded after they had seen it ablaze. Aircraft The aircraft was a Boeing 707-121 registered with tail number N709PA. Named the Clipper Tradewind, it was the oldest aircraft in the U.S. commercial jet fleet at the time of the crash. It had been delivered to Pan Am on October 27, 1958, and had flown a total of 14,609 hours. It was powered by four Pratt & Whitney JT3C-6 turbojet engines, and its estimated value was $3,400,000 (). In 1959, the aircraft had been involved in an incident in which the right outboard engine was torn from the wing during a training flight in France. The plane entered a sudden spin during a demonstration of the aircraft's minimum control speed, and the aerodynamic forces caused the engine to break away. The pilot regained control of the aircraft and landed safely in London using the remaining three engines. The detached engine fell into a field on a farm southwest of Paris, where the flight had originated, with no injuries. Passengers and crew The plane carried 73 passengers, who all died in the crash. All the passengers were residents of the United States. The pilot was George F. Knuth, 45, of Long Island. He had flown for Pan Am for 22 years and had accumulated 17,049 hours of flying experience, including 2,890 in the Boeing 707. He had been involved in another incident in 1949 when, as pilot of Pan Am Flight 100,