Pan Am Flight 121 crashes in the Syrian Desert near Mayadin, Syria, killing 15 and injuring 21.

Pan Am Flight 121 was a scheduled Pan American World Airways flight from Karachi to Istanbul. On the evening of 18 June 1947, the Lockheed L-049 Constellation serving the flight, known as the Clipper Eclipse, suffered an engine failure. This led to the overheating of the remaining engines until one caught fire, which spread to the aircraft. The heat from burning magnesium parts separated the engine from the aircraft, leaving it unable to maintain altitude. Early in the morning of 19 June 1947 the plane crashed in the Syrian desert 4 miles from the town of Mayadin. Fifteen people were killed, including 7 crew and 8 passengers. The three surviving crew members were third officer Gene Roddenberry, the chief purser, and one flight attendant. After rescuing passengers from the burning wreckage, Roddenberry took control as the ranking flight officer and organized scout parties to find aid. By midday, the Syrian Army took the survivors to the hospital at Deir ez-Zor. The majority returned to the United States quickly while Roddenberry remained in Syria for two weeks to answer questions about the crash from the local government.

The Syrian Desert, also known as the North Arabian Desert, the Jordanian steppe, or the Badiya, is a region of desert, semi-desert, and steppe, covering about 500,000 square kilometers of West Asia, including parts of northern Saudi Arabia, eastern Jordan, southern Syria, and western Iraq. It accounts for about 85% of the land area of Jordan and 55% of Syria. To the south, it borders and merges into the Arabian Desert. The land is open, rocky or gravelly desert pavement, cut with occasional wadis, or river valleys, generally dry riverbeds.

Mayadin is a town in eastern Syria. It is the capital of the Mayadin District, part of the Deir ez-Zor Governorate. Mayadin is about 44 kilometers southeast of Deir ez-Zor. The Euphrates River flows through the town. In the 2004 census, the population was 44,028, making it the second most populous town in the governorate.