 On June 18 , 1947 , he picked up the Clipper Eclipse in Karachi , India , for a flight to Istanbul with the designation Pan Am Flight 121 . Five hours into the flight , the number one engine developed a fault and was shut down . The plane was able to fly on three engines . However , they began to overheat , and the pilot descended to a lower altitude to allow the engines to cool . A second engine caught fire , and fire suppressant measures failed to extinguish it . While the pilot attempted to land the plane , Roddenberry went to the cabin to calm the passengers . He was certain at the time that he was going to die , as the engine fell from the wing , exposing fuel lines , causing the fire to spread . The plane descended rapidly . As he unbuckled himself from a seat to calm a woman , it crashed in the Syrian Desert . Though he had two broken ribs , he began to evacuate passengers from the burning plane with the other crew . Roddenberry had to force the broken seatbelt of the Maharani of Phaltan open so that she could leave the plane . He repeatedly re @-@ entered the plane to pull out more passengers ; some were burning and he used pillows to extinguish the flames . The wind turned , causing the fire to engulf the plane , and he was unable to make any further trips . Roddenberry took charge in the aftermath , and , after a group of local tribesmen proved to be of no help , he formed two teams to search for civilization . The team he led trekked four miles across the desert to the town of Mayadine , where he telephoned the emergency landing strip at Deir ez @-@ Zor , some 38 miles ( 61 km ) away . In response , the Syrian Army dispatched planes with medical teams to the crash site . Roddenberry returned to the site to assist the survivors . Fourteen people died in the crash ; eleven passengers needed hospital treatment , eight were unharmed . 
