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Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 disappeared over the western Pacific on March 15, 1962, while carrying 107 people on a military charter from Guam to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), which investigated the loss, could not determine its probable cause. The Board found no wreckage or debris that it could definitely associate with the aircraft. A surface vessel’s crew did report what appeared to be a midair explosion, but the official report does not treat that sighting as proof of what happened.
The aircraft, the operator and the mission
The aircraft was a Lockheed 1049H Super Constellation, registration N6921C, owned and operated by Flying Tiger Line Inc. At the time of the flight it was flying as Military Air Transport Service Flight 739/14. The leg in question was the Guam-to-Philippines segment of a military charter, departing from Agana Naval Air Station and bound for Clark Air Force Base.
- Aircraft type: Lockheed 1049H Super Constellation
- Registration: N6921C
- Operator: Flying Tiger Line Inc.
- Military designation: Military Air Transport Service Flight 739/14
- Route segment: Agana Naval Air Station, Guam, to Clark Air Force Base, Philippines
- People aboard: 96 military passengers and 11 crew, 107 in total
The last hours, step by step
The times below are the ones the CAB report gives. Most are expressed in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The report also gives one local time, which is noted in the table.
| Time (GMT, March 15, 1962 unless noted) | Event | Status in the record |
|---|---|---|
| 1422 | Last position report, west of 13°14′ north latitude and 140°00′ east longitude. The report gives the local time for this position as 22 minutes past midnight. | Documented in the CAB report |
| 1530 | Crew members aboard a surface vessel report what appeared to be a midair explosion, near the position and time the pilot had estimated for the next scheduled position report. | Witness report. The report does not confirm an explosion. |
| 1916 | Estimated arrival at Clark Air Force Base. | Expected arrival; the aircraft did not arrive. |
| 2227 | Flight officially declared missing. This is also the estimated time the aircraft would have exhausted its fuel. | Documented in the CAB report |
The gap between the last position report and the missing declaration is more than seven hours. The report says the aircraft disappeared sometime after its last position report, so the exact moment of loss is not known.
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The search and the missing declaration
When the aircraft failed to arrive at Clark, a widespread search was started. The flight was declared missing at 2227 GMT, the time the report describes as the estimated fuel-exhaustion point. The report states that all 107 people aboard were missing and presumed dead. It also states that the Board found no wreckage or debris that could definitely be associated with the aircraft.
The vessel sighting: what it does and does not show
The most consequential witness detail in the report is the sighting by crew members aboard a surface vessel at 1530 GMT. They reported what appeared to have been a midair explosion. The location and time of the sighting closely matched the position and time the pilot had estimated for his next position report, which is why the report treats it as relevant.
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What the report records
- A witness account from crew members on a surface vessel, not a physical finding.
- The sighting is described as appearing to be a midair explosion, which is a qualified description.
- The timing and location of the sighting match the aircraft’s expected position at that time.
What the report does not establish
- That an explosion occurred.
- That the sighting was connected to the aircraft’s disappearance.
- What caused the aircraft to be lost.
Because no wreckage was definitely identified, the vessel account remains the only direct observation of an event at the aircraft’s expected position, and it cannot by itself identify a cause.
Why the Board could not name a cause
The CAB concluded its investigation with a short statement of its limits: “The Board is unable to determine the probable cause of this accident from the evidence now available.” That sentence is the official finding on cause. It does not say the explosion sighting was disproven, and it does not rule out any explanation. It says the evidence available to the Board in 1963 was not sufficient to name one.
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Separating the record from later speculation
Readers who encounter Flight 739 in books, forums or documentaries will meet several kinds of claims. They are worth separating, because they carry very different levels of support.
- Documented in the official record: the aircraft’s identity and route, the last position report at 1422 GMT, the expected arrival at 1916 GMT, the missing declaration at 2227 GMT, the passenger and crew count, and the absence of definitely associated wreckage.
- Witness interpretation: the vessel crew’s account of an apparent midair explosion at 1530 GMT. It is recorded in the report but is not a confirmed finding.
- Speculation beyond the report: any proposed cause that the CAB did not establish. Such claims should be judged against new, attributable evidence, and the 1963 report does not endorse any of them.
The report is also silent on individual passenger and crew biographies, so this article does not describe the people aboard beyond their numbers.
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Primary sources
The CAB accident report, numbered 1-0002, was adopted on April 8, 1963 and released on April 10, 1963. It is the principal source for the details above, and it is available through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s ROSA P archive, where the official catalog record is also held. Readers who want to check the times, positions or the Board’s wording should start with the full report: the Civil Aeronautics Board accident report (PDF). The archive’s catalog entry is at ROSA P record for the CAB report.
Because the record is more than sixty years old and the investigation ended without a determined cause, any newer claim about the loss should be checked against the full report and against any source that names its own evidence.
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