High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Pan Am Flight 217 was a Boeing 707, registration N494PA, `Clipper Malay` which took off from New York-John F. Kennedy International Airport on a flight to Caracas-Simon Bolivar International Airport on December 12, 1968. After a 3 hour flight the aircraft was flying at night and nearing Caracas then the flight disappeared from radar at air traffic control at Caracas and a call was made to the Bolivarian Armada of Venezuela to search for the aircraft. The wreck of the Boeing 707 was found 18.4 km from Caracas. All 51 passengers and crew died in the crash.