Passengers and crew of Stratocruiser Clipper Romance Of The Skies which crashed in 1957 have been remembered at a newly revealed memorial

Pan Am Flight 7 a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser named Clipper Romance Of The Skies, departed San Francisco, on November 8, 1957, with 36 passengers and eight crew en route to Honolulu, Hawaii. After checking in with the Coast Guard cutter at Ocean Station “November,” the plane was heard from 30 minutes later, then all communication stopped. The airliner was listed as overdue. An exhaustive search by dozens of aircraft including from the aircraft carrier USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) spotted a few bodies and a small amount of wreckage floating 940 miles east of Honolulu and 90 miles north of N90944’s intended flight path. The cause of the accident has remained a mystery for 65 years.

On April 4, 2023, relatives of the passengers and crew of Pan Am Flight 7 gathered at the Millbrae Historical Society, near the San Francisco International Airport, for the unveiling of a memorial. The stone tablet memorializes the names of the 44 passengers and crew lost on November 8, 1957.

The granite marker was placed by the Pan Am Flight 7 Memorial Committee, made up of relatives of those lost in the crash. Ken Fortenberry and Gregg Herken served as co-chairs of the committee; Fortenberry’s father was co-pilot and navigator for the flight, and stewardess Marie McGrath was a teacher at Herken’s grammar school. Both have a very personal connection to the flight, as did many others in attendance. Fortenberry spent years researching the crash, which resulted in his 2020 book Flight 7 Is Missing: The Search for My Father’s Killer where he presents his theory of what brought down the airliner.

The memorial can be seen on the grounds of the Millbrae History Museum, adjacent to the Millbrae Library, at 420 Poplar Ave. The museum is open Saturdays from noon to 4pm.