First Asian Carrier To Cross Pacific

1 August 2018

Philippine Airlines became the first Asian airline to cross the Pacific Ocean when it flew its Douglas DC-4 plane from Nielson Airport in Makati to Oakland airport in California, USA on July 31 carrying 40 American servicemen heading back home.

8 comments:

  1. When posting a history, there should be year. Or is it a guessing game? 1945? 1946? 1947? ....

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  2. July 31, 1946
    PAL becomes first Asian airline to cross the Pacific when it operated a chartered Douglas DC-4 on the first of several flights to ferry home initially 40 US servicemen. Each crossing took 41 hours with fuelling stops at Guam, Wake, Kwajelein and Honolulu.

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  3. I think it is established that most of the visitors of this blog are AV Geeks. I think we can overlook the year since we can google that info anyway or we already know it. But for your peace of mind, it was 1946.

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  4. If you’re looking for history, go to the library and do not bother this blog.

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  5. I think no one is looking for history. It so happened that the blogger posted a story dated back long before (which is known to many as history).

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  6. I think the intention of this blog is to commemorate the anniversary of the first flight of PAL across the Pacific Ocean, which was July 31.

    There is no need to mention the year as this is simply a statement of fact.

    It's just like commemorating Philippine Independence on June 12. This statement remains true, whether you mention the year or not.

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  7. Strictly speaking, if one wants to stress the historical date that an event took place, it is important to put the day, month and year. So the historical commemoration of the first PAL trans-Pacific flight took place on 7/31/1946. Of course, it is certainly acceptable to mark the anniversary on 7/31 each year.

    But on another score, 6/12 is currently celebrated annually as Philippine Independence Day because it marks an event that took place on 6/12/1898. However, it is notable in that the date is not fully correct if one considers the definition of "independence" (yes, it is optional to any reader). Full independence (defined as "self-governance from a colonizing nation") did not fully occur until 7/4/1946 (the so-named Philippine-American Friendship Day). By indicating the year in addition to the day and month, everyone can recall which colonizer the "independence" was gained from.

    But for this blog's purposes, it appears acceptable to simply state that the Philippines' flag carrier was the first airline to fly across the Pacific Ocean on a scheduled flight 72 years ago on July 31.

    This is, after all, only a blog; not a legal document.

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  8. LOL. Majority of Americans don't even know when was the first July 4 celebrated and from what country. Talking here about real education for the masses. Of course totally out of topic but the concept of when it actually happen is I think passe these days, thus the remarks above.

    Tom

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