|
?:reviewBody
|
-
On 10 November 2015, the web comic The Oatmeal rekindled interest in an incident from the early life of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry: the 1947 crash of Pan Am Flight 121 during its leg from Karachi to Istanbul, an accident that killed seven crew members and seven passengers and left Roddenberry, who was a member of the flight crew, with a couple of broken ribs and a bruise or two: The Oatmeal comic (which can be viewed in its entirety here) related that after the plane crashed, 26-year-old Gene Roddenberry (a pilot who flew with the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and worked as a commercial pilot for Pan Am airlines after the war) pulled passengers from the burning wreckage and then led them to a village where they were able to call for help. While some readers were skeptical about the fantastical story, The Oatmeal provided a link to its source material, Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry, which recounts the incident at length in Chapter 5. Although The Oatmeal described Roddenberry as the co-pilot of the flight, other sources identified Roddenberry as the third officer without flight responsibilities or a deadheading pilot. Nonetheless, Roddenberry did helm a portion the flight while the captain took a break, and there's no disputing the fact that he helped 22 people survive the crash of Pan Am Flight 121 in 1947 after an engine fire forced the flight down in a desert and the plane ignited: As described in Star Trek Creator, Roddenberry was instrumental in helping to save surviving passengers: The Roddenberry Foundation recounted a similar version of the story, noting that the creator of Star Trek was awarded a Civil Aeronautics commendation for his efforts after the crash:
(en)
|
![[This page as RDF]](http://data.gesis.org/claimskg/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}