1972 Pacific typhoon season, Storm names
During the season 29 named tropical cyclones developed in the Western Pacific and were named by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, when it was determined that they had become tropical storms. These names were contributed to a revised list from late 1950.


1972 Pacific typhoon season, Storm names
Two Central Pacific system developed, Tropical Storms June and Ruby. The naming policy at the time was to use Western Pacific names the Central Pacific.


1972 Pacific typhoon season, Storm names, Philippines
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration uses its own naming scheme for tropical cyclones in their area of responsibility. PAGASA assigns names to tropical depressions that form within their area of responsibility and any tropical cyclone that might move into their area of responsibility. Should the list of names for a given year prove to be insufficient, names are taken from an auxiliary list, the first 6 of which are published each year before the season starts. Names not retired from this list will be used again in the 1976 season. This is the same list used for the 1968 season. PAGASA uses its own naming scheme that starts in the Filipino alphabet, with names of Filipino female names ending with "ng" (A, B, K, D, etc.). Names that were not assigned/going to use are marked in gray.


1972 Pacific typhoon season, Season effects
This table will list all the storms that developed in the northwestern Pacific Ocean west of the International Date Line and north of the equator during 1972. It will include their intensity, duration, name, areas affected, deaths, missing persons (in parentheses), and damage totals. Classification and intensity values will be based on estimations conducted by the JMA, however due to lack of information around this time sustained winds were recorded by the JTWC. All damage figures will be in 1972 USD. Damages and deaths from a storm will include when the storm was a precursor wave or an extratropical low.


1972 Pacific-8 Conference football season
The 1972 Pacific-8 Conference football season took place during the 1972 NCAA University Division football season. The conference featured the eventual national champions in USC.


1972 Palanca Awards
The Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature winners in the year 1972 (rank, title of winning entry, name of author).


1972 Palanca Awards, English Division
Third Prize: "After This, Our Exile" by Elsa M. Coscolluela


1972 Palestine Cup of Nations
The 1972 Palestine Cup was the 1st edition of the Palestine Cup of Nations, it was held in Baghdad, Iraq between 1 January and 14 January. The tournament apparently acted as replacement for the Arab Nations Cup (or was just another name for it), which was otherwise not held between 1966 and 1985. Nine nations took part in the competition of which Egypt won.


1972 Palestine Cup of Nations squads
Below are the squads for the 1972 Palestine Cup of Nations, hosted in Iraq, and which took place between 1 and 25 January 1972.


1972 Panamanian parliamentary election
The Panama held a  parliamentary election on 6 August 1972, electing both a new National Assembly of Community Representatives.


1972 Panamanian parliamentary election
No elections were held under the military government until April 1970, when the town of San Miguelito, incorporated as the country's sixty-fourth municipal district, was allowed to elect a mayor, treasurer, and municipal council. Candidates nominated by trade groups and other nonpartisan bodies were elected indirectly by a council that had been elected by neighborhood councils. Subsequently, the new system was extended throughout the country, and in 1972 the National Assembly of Community Representatives met in Panama City to confirm Torrijos's role as head of government and to approve a new constitution.


1972 Panamanian parliamentary election
The new document greatly expanded governmental powers at the expense of civil liberties. The state also was empowered to "oversee the rational distribution of land" and, in general, to regulate or initiate economic activities. In a reference to the Canal Zone, the Constitution also declared the ceding of national territory to any foreign country to be illegal.


1972 Panamanian parliamentary election
The old National Assembly associated with the influence of the traditional parties was abolished and replaced with a National Assembly of Community Representatives (Corregimientos). This new Assembly contained 505 members elected from the small subdistricts into which Panama had been divided during colonial times.


1972 Panamanian parliamentary election
The traditional political parties were banned from electoral participation, and short legislative sessions ensured that there would be no time to mount meaningful challenges to military executive authority.


1972 Panamanian parliamentary election
While the Liberals and Panameñistas boycotted the elections for representatives to the Assembly of Corregimientos, the People’s Party of Panama (PPP) ran 120 candidates.


1972 Panamanian parliamentary election
Meeting in September the Assembly acclaimed Gen. Torrijos as ‘the Supreme leader of the Panamanian Revolution’.


1972 Panamanian parliamentary election
The 1972 constitution, which created this new ‘popular legislature,’ also recognized the central role within the executive branch of General Torrijos and the defense forces. The impotency of the president within this new constitutional structure was best expressed by the fact that he could neither appoint nor remove military personnel.


1972 Panamanian presidential election
Panama held a presidential election on October 10, 1972, electing both a new President and Vice President of the Republic.


1972 Panamanian presidential election
On October 10, 1972 the National Assembly of Community Representatives elected Demetrio B. Lakas president and Arturo Sucre Pereira as Vice-President for a six-year term (1972-1978).


1972 Papua New Guinean general election
General elections were held in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea between 19 February and 11 March 1972. They saw the election of the country's first female MP, Josephine Abaijah.


1972 Papua New Guinean general election, Electoral system
The House of Assembly was expanded from 94 to 107 members, consisting of 100 elected members, four civil servants and three members nominated by members of the House to represent special interest groups. The 100 elected members were elected from 82 open constituencies and 18 regional constituencies, from each of which a single member was elected by single transferable vote. Voters could vote for a candidate in both their local open constituency and the regional constituency covering their area. Candidacy in the regional constituencies was limited to people who had received the Intermediate Certificate (or an equivalent) from school.


1972 Papua New Guinean general election, Electoral system
Prior to the elections, the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18. A total of 1,384,780 voters were enrolled.


1972 Papua New Guinean general election, Electoral system
To reduce the reliance on 'whispered' votes (in which illiterate voters told polling officials who they wished to vote for), photos of the candidates were added to ballot papers.


1972 Papua New Guinean general election, Campaign
A total of 611 candidates contested the 100 seats in the House of Assembly, of which four were women and 74 were incumbents running for re-election. Two seats – East Sepik Regional and West Sepik Coastal Open – had only one candidate, both of whom (Michael Somare of the Pangu Party and Brere Awol respectively) were returned unopposed. Incumbent MP for Morobe Regional, Tony Voutas, chose not to run after becoming an official within the Pangu Party. Other incumbents stepping down included Percy Chatterton (Moresby Open).


1972 Papua New Guinean general election, Results
Only 38 of the 72 incumbents that contested the elections were re-elected. The new House of Assembly had 37 members of the United Party, 11 from the People's Progress Party, 18 members of the Pangu Party, 8 members of the Niugini National Party, and 3 from the Mataungan Association.


1972 Papua New Guinean general election, Aftermath
Following the elections Michael Somare was able to form a coalition government including his Pangu Party, the People's Progress Party, the Niugini National Party, the Mataungan Association and a group of independents led by John Guise. Somare's bloc nominated Perry Kwan for the post of Speaker; Kwan won by a vote of 49–48 against United Party candidate Matthias Toliman. However, Kwan resigned from the post June, saying he was too inexperienced for the role. Barry Holloway was elected to replace him.


1972 Papua New Guinean general election, Aftermath
A new government was formed led by Somare as Deputy Chairman of the Administrator's Executive Council.


1972 Paris Open
The 1972 Paris Open, also known as the Jean Becker Open Championships, was a men's tennis tournament played on indoor carpet courts. The event was part of the Grand Prix circuit and classified as a B category tournament. It was the 3rd edition of the Paris Open (later known as the Paris Masters) and took place at the Palais omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris, France, from October 30 through November 5, 1972. Stan Smith won the singles title.


1972 Paris Open, Finals, Doubles
Pierre Barthes /  François Jauffret defeated  Andrés Gimeno /  Juan Gisbert, Sr. 6–3, 6–2


1972 Paris Open – Doubles, Seeds
Champion seeds are indicated in bold text while text in italics indicates the round in which those seeds were eliminated. All four seeded teams received byes to the second round.


1972 Paris Open – Singles
Stan Smith won in the final, 6–2, 6–2, 7–5, against Andrés Gimeno.


1972 Paris Open – Singles, Seeds
A champion seed is indicated in bold text while text in italics indicates the round in which that seed was eliminated.


1972 Paris–Nice
The 1972 Paris–Nice was the 30th edition of the Paris–Nice cycle race and was held from 9 March to 16 March 1972. The race started in Paris and finished in Nice. The race was won by Raymond Poulidor of the Gan team.


1972 Paris–Roubaix
The 1972 Paris–Roubaix, the 70th edition of the Paris–Roubaix race taking place on 16 April 1972, marked the real beginning of Roger De Vlaeminck's mastery of the cobbles of the north. De Vlaeminck had already placed second two years earlier, but in 1972 there was no stopping Mr. Paris-Roubaix.


1972 Paris–Roubaix
Most of the race were undertaken under terrible weather condition with low temperatures and rain. The usual spectacle in the Arenberg Forest was there once more, and this year enhanced by the conditions that made the passage very difficult. A massive 40 rider crash took amongst others Eddy Merckx down. Due to the harshness of the weather and the scrutinizing pace in the Arenberg forest just 49 of the starting 160 riders finished the race.


1972 Paris–Roubaix
After the crashes in the Arenberg forest a 17 rider group formed with De Vlaeminck pushing the pace and gradually dropping riders on the cobbled sections. With 50 km to go Willy Van Malderghem and Alain Santy broke away and at one time held almost a two-minute lead. On his own De Vlaeminck caught first Santy, then Van Malderghem and proceeded alone onto the velodrome in Roubaix with a convincing margin of nearly two minutes.


1972 Paris–Tours
The 1972 Paris–Tours was the 66th edition of the Paris–Tours cycle race and was held on 1 October 1972. The race started in Paris and finished in Tours. The race was won by Noël Vantyghem.


1972 Pau Grand Prix
The 1972 Pau Grand Prix was a Formula Two motor race held on 5 May 1972 at the Pau circuit, in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France. The Grand Prix was won by Peter Gethin, driving the Chevron B20. Patrick Depailler finished second and David Purley third.


1972 Peach Bowl
The 1972 Peach Bowl was a college football postseason bowl game between the NC State Wolfpack and the West Virginia Mountaineers.


1972 Peach Bowl, Background
The Wolfpack finished 2nd in the Atlantic Coast Conference in Holtz's first year with the team. This was their first bowl game since 1967. West Virginia made their first bowl since the 1969 Peach Bowl in the 3rd year of Bobby Bowden as coach.


1972 Peach Bowl, Aftermath
The Wolfpack made five more bowl games in the decade, including the Peach Bowl in 1975, which also had the Mountaineers as the opponent.


1972 Penn Quakers football team
The 1972 Penn Quakers football team represented the University of Pennsylvania in the 1972 NCAA University Division football season.


1972 Penn State Nittany Lions football team
The 1972 Penn State Nittany Lions represented Pennsylvania State University in the 1972 NCAA University Division football season. As a result of using ineligible players, the Oklahoma Sooners were ordered to forfeit seven wins from their 1972 season, including their on-field win over the Nittany Lions. However, Paterno and Penn State refused to accept the forfeit, and the bowl game is officially recorded as a loss.


1972 Penn State Nittany Lions football team, Post season, NFL Draft
Five Nittany Lions were drafted in the 1973 NFL Draft.


1972 Perth Carnival
The 1972 Perth Carnival was the 18th edition of the Australian National Football Carnival, an Australian rules football interstate competition. It was the last of the traditional single-city round-robin carnivals in the residential qualification era of interstate football.


1972 Perth Carnival
Four teams took part, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania, with each playing one another once in a round robin format. Victoria won the Carnival after finishing as the only undefeated team.


1972 Perth Carnival
Peter McKenna was the most successful goal kicker with 19 goals, followed by Glynn Hewitt and Phil Tierney who kicked 11 each.


1972 Perth Carnival, All-Australian team
In 1972 the All-Australian team was picked based on the Perth Carnival.


1972 Perth Carnival, Tassie Medal
Ken McAullay of Western Australia won the Tassie Medal with 17 votes, eight more than the runner-up Len Thompson received.


1972 Peruvian Segunda División
The 1972 Peruvian Segunda División, the second division of Peruvian football (soccer), was played by 11 teams. The tournament winner, Atlético Chalaco was promoted to the 1973 Torneo Descentralizado.


1972 Philadelphia Eagles season
The 1972 Philadelphia Eagles season was the franchise's 40th season in the National Football League. They failed to improve on their previous output of 6–7–1, winning only two games. The team failed to qualify for the playoffs for the twelfth consecutive season.


1972 Philadelphia Eagles season
Both of the Eagles' victories were one-point decisions on the road vs. AFC teams, 21–20 over the Kansas City Chiefs and 18–17 over the Houston Oilers, a victory which cost the Eagles the #1 selection in the 1973 NFL Draft. The meeting with the Chiefs was the last until 1992, and Kansas City did not come to Philadelphia until 1998.


1972 Philadelphia Eagles season
Following the disastrous season, the third with three wins or fewer since 1968, general manager Pete Retzlaff resigned, and coach Ed Khayat was fired by owner Leonard Tose.


1972 Philadelphia Eagles season, Offseason
The Eagles held training camp at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania. This was last year there. The next year, they moved camp to Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania only 7 miles from Veterans Stadium where they played their home games in Philadelphia.


1972 Philadelphia Eagles season, Offseason, NFL Draft
The 1972 NFL Draft was held on February 1–2, 1972. the draft was 17 rounds and a total of 443 players were chosen


1972 Philadelphia Eagles season, Offseason, NFL Draft
The Eagle chose John Reaves a quarterback from the University of Florida with the 14th pick in the 1st round. They would have the pick 14th in the 17 rounds. They chose 17 players in this year's draft.


1972 Philadelphia Eagles season, Offseason, NFL Draft
The number 1 overall pick went to the Buffalo Bills who chose Walt Patulski a Defensive end out of the University of Notre DameIn the 2nd round with the 40th pick, Atlanta Falcons took 1971 Heisman Trophy winner Pat Sullivan a Quarterback out of Auburn University


1972 Philadelphia Eagles season, Offseason, Player selections
The table shows the Eagles selections and what picks they had that were traded away and the team that ended up with that pick. It is possible the Eagles' pick ended up with this team via another team that the Eagles made a trade with. Not shown are acquired picks that the Eagles traded away.


1972 Philadelphia Eagles season, Regular season
On November 12, Tom Dempsey kicked six field goals in one game.


1972 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps
A recap of the scoring plays and the game scores by quarters during the year. The record after the team's name reflects this games outcome also.


1972 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps, Week 9
Played at Houston Astrodome on AstroTurf in 72F degrees indoors


1972 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps, Week 11
Played at Yankee Stadium on grass in 50F degrees with a 15 MPH wind


1972 Philadelphia Eagles season, Game recaps, Week 11
NOTE: The game was not televised by CBS after striking International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers members cut the transmission cables in The Bronx.


1972 Philadelphia Eagles season, Postseason
At the 1972 season end head coach Ed Khayat is fired. Mike McCormack, a Washington Redskins assistant coach from 1965 to 1972, was hired in his place. Khayat was never an NFL head coach again, although he was head coach of the New Orleans Night of the Arena Football League in 1991.


1972 Philadelphia Phillies season
The 1972 Philadelphia Phillies season saw the team finish with a record of 59–97, last place in the National League East.


1972 Philadelphia Phillies season, Offseason
The Phils made perhaps one of the most significant trades in their history on February 25, when they traded Rick Wise to the St. Louis Cardinals for Steve Carlton. Both teams were engaged in difficult contract negotiations with each pitcher. Carlton went on to win four Cy Young Awards with the Phillies, and Wise continued a solid career. Carlton won his first Cy Young Award on the 1972 Phillies who won only 59 games. Carlton was 27–10 and the team was 30–85 when Carlton did not pitch. No pitcher in the twentieth century has won as high a proportion of his team's victories (45.8%). Carlton also led the N.L. in ERA (1.97), strikeouts (310), and innings pitched (346).


1972 Philadelphia Phillies season, Regular season
During the season, Steve Carlton became the last pitcher to win at least 25 games in one season for the Phillies in the 20th century.


1972 Philadelphia Phillies season, Regular season
On July 10, manager Frank Lucchesi was fired with the team at 26–50. Paul Owens, who had been promoted from farm director to GM a month earlier, became manager as well.


1972 Philadelphia Phillies season, Regular season
The Padres came close to a no-hitter against the Phillies on July 18, 1972; Steve Arlin came within one out before a ninth-inning two-out single by Denny Doyle broke up the bid.


1972 Philadelphia Phillies season, Regular season
The Phillies had hosted the 1952 All-Star Game, played July 9, 1952 at Shibe Park. The American League won 3 to 2 in five innings; the first rain shortened All-Star Game. The Phillies held their promotional Old-Timers Game on August 19, 1972. The Phillies invited all of the players from the 1952 game back to Philadelphia to complete the last four innings.


1972 Philadelphia Phillies season, Regular season
Mike Schmidt made his major league debut on September 12.


1972 Philadelphia Phillies season, Player stats, Batting, Starters by position
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1972 Philadelphia Phillies season, Player stats, Batting, Other batters
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1972 Philadelphia Phillies season, Player stats, Pitching, Starting pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1972 Philadelphia Phillies season, Player stats, Pitching, Other pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1972 Philadelphia Phillies season, Player stats, Pitching, Relief pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1972 Phillip Island 500K
The 1972 Phillip Island 500K was an endurance motor race open to Group E Series Production Touring Cars. The event, which was Heat 4 of the 1972 Australian Manufacturers' Championship, was held on 21 October 1972 at the Phillip Island circuit in Victoria, Australia over a distance of 318 miles (512 km).


1972 Phillip Island 500K, Class Structure
As a heat of the 1972 Australian Manufacturers' Championship, the race featured four classes defined by "Capacity Price Units". The CP Unit value for each car was assessed by multiplying the engine capacity (in litres) by the Sydney retail price (in Australian dollars).


1972 Piccadilly World Match Play Championship
The 1972 Piccadilly World Match Play Championship was the ninth World Match Play Championship. It was played from Thursday 12 to Saturday 14 October on the West Course at Wentworth. Eight players competed in a straight knock-out competition, with each match contested over 36 holes. The champion received £8,500 out of a total prize fund of £25,000. In the final, Tom Weiskopf beat Lee Trevino 4 & 3 to win the championship.


1972 Piccadilly World Match Play Championship
Grier Jones was a surprise invitee for the event. Relatively unknown in Europe, he had won two events on the 1972 PGA Tour and runner-up in two others. He met Tony Jacklin in the first round and lost 7 & 6.


1972 Piccadilly World Match Play Championship
Peter Oosterhuis beat defending champion Gary Player in the first round. Oosterhuis won four of the first five holes and went 5 up after an eagle at the 12th. Player won three of the remaining holes to go to lunch only two holes down and had levelled the match by the 13th hole of the afternoon round. Oosterhuis holed a 30-foot putt at the 16th and eventually won by one hole.


1972 Piccadilly World Match Play Championship, Prize money
The winner received £8,500, the runner-up £4,500, the losing semi-finalists £3,000 and the first round losers £1,500, making a total prize fund of £25,000.


1972 Pioneer Bowl
The 1972 Pioneer Bowl was a college football bowl game in Texas, played between the Drake Bulldogs and Tennessee State at Memorial Stadium in Wichita Falls. The second edition of the Pioneer Bowl, it was one of four regional finals in the College Division played on December 9. The division became Division II (and III) the following season.


1972 Pioneer Bowl
Tennessee State jumped out early and built a 22–0 halftime lead; each team scored a second half touchdown and the final score was 29–7. It was the Tigers' fourth consecutive bowl win.


1972 Pittsburgh Panthers football team
The 1972 Pittsburgh Panthers football team represented the University of Pittsburgh in the 1972 NCAA University Division football season.


1972 Pittsburgh Pirates season
The 1972 Pittsburgh Pirates season was the 91st season of the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise; the 86th in the National League. The defending World Series champion Pirates finished first in the National League East with an MLB-best record of 96–59. The team was defeated three games to two by the Cincinnati Reds in the 1972 National League Championship Series. Despite losing the series, the Pirates put up a good fight, unlike the last time the two teams met in the playoffs.


1972 Pittsburgh Pirates season
In game 5, the Pirates led 3-2 in the 9th inning, and were 3 outs away from pulling off a major upset over the Reds. All looked good until the Pirates collapsed in the 9th inning and allowed 2 runs to score, with the walkoff run coming on a wild pitch.


1972 Pittsburgh Pirates season, Player stats, Batting, Starters by position
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1972 Pittsburgh Pirates season, Player stats, Batting, Other batters
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1972 Pittsburgh Pirates season, Player stats, Pitching, Starting pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1972 Pittsburgh Pirates season, Player stats, Pitching, Other pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1972 Pittsburgh Pirates season, Player stats, Pitching, Relief pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1972 Pittsburgh Steelers season
The 1972 Pittsburgh Steelers season was the team's 40th in the National Football League.


1972 Pittsburgh Steelers season
The team posted a record of 11–3 in 1972, and won their first-ever AFC Central Division title. It was the team's third-ever postseason appearance, its first postseason appearance in ten seasons (the Playoff Bowl for third place in the league), and only its second playoff game since 1947. This season is famous for the Immaculate Reception, where the Steelers beat the Oakland Raiders in the playoffs 13-7 on a last second touchdown by Franco Harris.


1972 Pittsburgh Steelers season
The rebuilding of the franchise that began in 1969 with the hiring of Chuck Noll finally came to fruition in his fourth year. After winning only one game in his first year in 1969 the team that showed steady improvement broke through in 1972 and made the playoffs for the first time since 1947. Their 3 losses were by a combined 11 points. The division title was the first in team history, as was the appearance in the AFC Championship game which they lost to the undefeated Miami Dolphins 21-17. It was the first of 8 straight playoff appearances for the Steelers that led to 4 Super Bowl Championships.


1972 Pittsburgh Steelers season, Regular season, Game summaries, Week 1: vs. Oakland Raiders
The Steelers were able to start off against the Raiders at home scoring 17 unanswered points (2TDs/PATs and a FG) and eventually ended up defeating the team by 6 for a 34–28 victory and a 1–0 start.


1972 Pittsburgh Steelers season, Regular season, Game summaries, Week 12: vs. Cleveland Browns
Franco Harris breaks Jim Brown's record for consecutive 100 yd games.


1972 Pittsburgh Steelers season, Regular season, Game summaries, Week 14: San Diego Chargers
The Pittsburgh Steelers clinched their first AFC Central Division title. The day before the game Frank Sinatra is inducted into Franco's Italian Army.


1972 Polish legislative election
Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 19 March 1972. The results, like with the other elections in communist Poland, were controlled by the communist government. The results of the 1965 election would be duplicated, exactly, by the 1969 and 1972 elections. The results of the next, 1976 election, would be only marginally different.


1972 Polish legislative election, Results
As the other parties and "independents" were subordinate to PZPR, its control of the Sejm was total.


1972 Portland–Vancouver tornadoes
An unusually intense squall line with embedded strong tornadoes struck Oregon and Washington on Wednesday, April 5, 1972. Of the four tornadoes, the most catastrophic event was a deadly F3 tornado that struck Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, the first F3 tornado to strike Oregon since June 3, 1894. Dubbed the 1972 Portland–Vancouver Tornado, the tornado tracked 8.7 miles (14.0 km) across the heavily populated Portland–Vancouver metropolitan area, causing heavy damage, killing six people, and injuring 300 while causing $25.25 million (1972 USD) in damage. It was the deadliest tornado in the United States in 1972 and remains the deadliest tornado in the history of the Pacific Northwest. In all, the outbreak killed six, injured 301, and caused $25.55 million in damage.


1972 Portland–Vancouver tornadoes, Meteorological synopsis
A sharp cold front triggered an intense squall line that moved into the Pacific Northwest during the late morning hours of April 5, 1972. After moving inland, the storms produced strong winds, large hail, and tornadoes to the region. Weakening of the storms did not take place until late that evening; by then storms had moved over 50 miles (80 km) inland.


1972 Portland–Vancouver tornadoes, Confirmed tornadoes, Portland, Oregon/Vancouver, Washington
The National Weather Service tracked a very turbulent squall line of thunderstorms moving northeasterly across Portland, Oregon, the strongest of which was near the city of Tigard. The tornado formed from this storm and touched down near the edge of the Columbia River, moving 1½ miles before crossing the river. The tornado was difficult to observe because of the fog and the mud and flying debris drawn up by the tornado. After making landfall on the Washington side of the river, it continued its 9-mile (14 km) journey before dissipating. The storm was classed as a tornado by the National Weather Service on April 6.


1972 Portland–Vancouver tornadoes, Confirmed tornadoes, Portland, Oregon/Vancouver, Washington
In Portland, Oregon, the tornado damaged four boat moorings and 50 small boats. Damage in Oregon from the tornado totaled up to $250,000 (1972 USD). Vancouver, Washington suffered the most significant damage from the tornado. The tornado struck east Vancouver at 12:51 p.m. (PST) on April 5, 1972, where it destroyed a grocery store, along with Peter S. Ogden Elementary School injuring 70 students. Nearby, the storm demolished a bowling alley, a drive-in theater screen and damaged around 100 homes, some severely. Trees and power lines were downed and several vehicles were flipped as well. The Oregon National Guard and the Oregon State Police crossed the state border to help transport the injured and direct traffic in the aftermath of the tornado.


1972 Portland–Vancouver tornadoes, Non-tornadic events
High winds brought by the thunderstorms caused minimal tree damage. In Tigard, the thunderstorm that spawned the tornado tore the roof off a warehouse and damaged several parked cars. A pressure jump of 0.12 inches (3.0 mm) was recorded by the National Weather Service. The Portland, Oregon National Weather Service office, approximately one mile east of the tornado touchdown, recorded winds gusting up to 63 mph (101 km/h). Another weather station reported sustained winds of 80 mph (130 km/h).


1972 Portland–Vancouver tornadoes, Aftermath
Overall, the Portland–Vancouver F3 tornado killed six people and left $25.25 million (1972 USD) in damage. The small outbreak was the deadliest and most significant tornado event to occur in the Pacific Northwest, with winds of up to 206 miles per hour (332 km/h).


1972 Portuguese Guinea National Assembly election
Indirect elections to a National Assembly were held in the parts of Portuguese Guinea held by the rebel African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) between August and October 1972, but not in the Portuguese-controlled areas of Bissau, Bolama, the Bissagos Islands and Bafatá.


1972 Portuguese Guinea National Assembly election
A single list of PAIGC candidates for Regional Councils was approved by 97% of voters with a 93.4% turnout. The number of people voting was approximately 32% of the voting-age population.


1972 Portuguese Guinea National Assembly election, Electoral system
Voters elected 273 members of 11 regional councils. The elected councillors then convened to elect 91 members of the 120-seat National Assembly. The remaining 29 seats were to represent the four regions still under Portuguese control, and these members were chosen by the PAIGC.


1972 Portuguese Guinea National Assembly election, Electoral system
The elections took six weeks, with ballot papers carried around the country on foot. The ballot papers had been printed in neighbouring Guinea.


1972 Portuguese Guinea National Assembly election, Aftermath
The new National Assembly met for the first time in Boe on 24 September 1973.


1972 Portuguese presidential election
Presidential elections under the Estado Novo regime was held for the last time on 25 July 1972, the only one not controlled by late Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar, with the last elections for the National Assembly held the following year, less than a year before the Carnation Revolution. Incumbent President and former Naval Minister Américo Thomaz of the ruling People's National Action was endorsed by a uniform National Assembly for a third seven-year term, which would have ended in 25 July 1979.


1972 Pot Black
The 1972 Pot Black was a professional invitational snooker tournament, which was broadcast in 1972. The tournament was held in Birmingham, and featured six professional players. All matches were one-frame shoot-outs.


1972 Pot Black
Broadcasts were on BBC2 and started at 21:00 on Wednesday 12 April 1972 The tournament this year was reduced to 6 players. There was a qualifying stage in which each competitor played three matches. The leading four then played in a round-robin group with the top two players qualifying for the final. Alan Weeks presented the programme with Ted Lowe as commentator and Sydney Lee as referee.


1972 Pot Black
The tournament featured its first overseas player making his TV debut, Australia's Eddie Charlton who went on to win the tournament beating Ray Reardon 88–27 in the final broadcast  on 26 July.


1972 Prague Skate
The 1972 Prague Skate was a senior international figure skating competition held 11–12 November 1972 in Czechoslovakia. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles and ladies' singles. Gold in both categories went to skaters from the United States. Future Olympic champion Dorothy Hamill won the ladies' title ahead of West Germany's Gerti Schanderl and Canada's Daria Prychun. Gordon McKellen took the men's title while Zdeněk Pazdírek of Czechoslovakia and Jacques Mrozek of France took silver and bronze, respectively.


1972 Preakness Stakes
The 1972 Preakness Stakes was the 97th running of the $200,000 Preakness Stakes thoroughbred horse race. The race took place on May 20, 1972, and was televised in the United States on the CBS television network. Bee Bee Bee, who was jockeyed by Eldon Nelson, won the race by one and one half lengths over runner-up No Le Hace. Approximate post time was 5:40 p.m. Eastern Time. The race was run on a sloppy track in a final time of 1:55-3/5. The Maryland Jockey Club reported total attendance of 48,721, this is recorded as third highest on the list of American thoroughbred racing top attended events for North America in 1972.


1972 President's Cup Football Tournament
The 1972 President Park's Cup Asian Football Tournament (Korean: 제2회 박대통령컵 쟁탈 아시아축구대회) was the second competition of Korea Cup. The competition was held from 20 to 30 September 1972, and was won by Burma for the second time, who defeated Indonesia in the final.


1972 Primera División de Chile
The 1972 Campeonato Nacional de Fútbol Profesional, was the 40st season of top-flight football in Chile. Colo-Colo won their eleventh title following a 1–1 draw against Huachipato in the championship 33rd matchday on December 16, 1972, also qualifying to the 1973 Copa Libertadores.


1972 Princeton Tigers football team
The 1972 Princeton Tigers football team was an American football team that represented Princeton University during the 1972 NCAA University Division football season. Princeton finished sixth in the Ivy League.


1972 Princeton Tigers football team
In their fourth and final year under head coach Jake McCandless, the Tigers compiled a 3–5–1 record and were outscored 161 to 118. Michael L. Kincaid was the team captain.


1972 Princeton Tigers football team
Princeton's 2–4–1 conference record tied for sixth in the Ivy League standings. The Tigers were outscored 120 to 87 by Ivy opponents.


1972 Princeton Tigers football team
Princeton played its home games at Palmer Stadium on the university campus in Princeton, New Jersey.


1972 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe
The 1972 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe was a horse race held at Longchamp on Sunday 8 October 1972. It was the 51st running of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.


1972 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe
The winner was Margit Batthyany's San San, an American-bred three-year-old filly trained in France by Angel Penna Sr. and ridden by  Freddy Head. San San was the first filly to win the race since La Sorellina in 1953. Head had previously won the race on Bon Mot in 1966 whilst Batthyany and Penna were winning the race for the first time.


1972 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, The contenders
In French racing, horses in the same ownership are usually "coupled" and treated as a single entry for betting purposes. The favourite for the race was the three-year-old colt Hard To Beat, winner of the Grand Critérium, Prix Lupin, Prix du Jockey Club and Prix Niel. Next in the betting was the three-horse Nelson Bunker Hunt entry comprising Roberto (Epsom Derby, Benson and Hedges Gold Cup), Rescousse (Prix de Diane) and Pleben (Grand Prix de Paris). Apart from Roberto, Ireland was also represented by Boucher, the winner of the St Leger.


1972 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, The contenders
The three British challengers were Erimo Hawk (Ascot Gold Cup), Parnell (Irish St Leger) and Steel Pulse (Irish Derby). Other international contenders were My Mourne from Spain and Mejiro Musashi from Japan. The other French-trained runners included Sharapour (Prix Dollar), San San (Prix Vermeille), Regal Exception (Irish Oaks), Mister Sic Top (Prix d'Ispahan) and Homeric.


1972 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, The contenders
Hard To Beat started at odds of 1.2/1 ahead of the Bunker Hunt entry on 4.5/1. Parnell was next in the betting on 9.5/1, with Boucher and Sharapour on 17/1 and San San on 18.5/1.


1972 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, The race
Roberto took the lead soon after the start and set an exceptionally fast pace from Regal Exception and the Argentinian-bred Snow Castle with the back markers in the early stages including My Mourne, Mejiro Musashi and San San. Entering the final turn, Roberto maintained a one length advantage over Regal Exception, followed in order by Snow Castle, Parnell, Sharapour, Boucher, Hard To Beat and Homeric as San San and Rescousse began to make progress from the rear of the field.


1972 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, The race
In the straight Roberto and Regal Exception battled for the lead ahead of Homeric but San San was now making rapid headway on the outside. As Roberto dropped back and Regal Exception began to struggle the race looked to have devolved into a two-horse contest between San San and Homeric in the last 100 metres. San San got the better of Homeric and then held of the late challenge of Rescousse to win by one and a half lengths and half a length. Regal Exception held on to take fourth ahead of the 84/1 outsider Card King and Sharapour. Roberto faded into seventh, but was still the first three-year-old to cross the line, a length in front of Hard To Beat.


1972 Prize of Moscow News
The 1972 Prize of Moscow News was the seventh edition of an international figure skating competition organized in Moscow, Soviet Union. It was held December 9–13, 1972. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating and ice dancing. Sergei Chetverukhin won the men's title for the third consecutive year. Canada's Cathy Lee Irwin took the ladies' title ahead of West Germany's Isabel de Navarre and the Soviet Union's Tatiana Oleneva. Irina Vorobieva / Alexander Vlasov defeated Olympic champions Ludmila Belousova / Oleg Protopopov for gold in the pairs' category. In the ice dancing category, world champions Lyudmila Pakhomova / Alexander Gorshkov won their fourth gold medal at the event.


1972 Pro Bowl
The 1972 Pro Bowl was the NFL's 22nd annual all-star game which featured the outstanding performers from the 1971 season. The game was played on January 23, 1972, at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. The final Score was AFC 26, NFC 13. The Kansas City Chiefs swept the Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, with placekicker Jan Stenerud named the game's offensive MVP and Willie Lanier selected as the defensive MVP. This was the last NFL game overall played with the hashmarks (also called the inbound lines) set at 40 feet apart (20 yards from the sidelines); the next season, they were brought in to 181⁄2 feet, the width of the goalposts, where they still stand to this day.


1972 Pro Bowl
Attendance at the game was 53,647. Don McCafferty of the Baltimore Colts coached the AFC while the NFC was led by the San Francisco 49ers' Dick Nolan. The referee was Ben Dreith.


1972 Puerto Rican general election
The 1972 Puerto Rican general elections were held in Puerto Rico on 7 November 1972. Rafael Hernández Colón of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD) was elected Governor, whilst the PPD also won a majority of the seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Voter turnout was 80.4%.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash
The 1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash was an aviation accident that occurred on December 31, 1972, in Carolina, Puerto Rico. As a result of inadequate maintenance, the aircraft's No. 2 engine failed after takeoff. After initiating a turn to return to the airport, the aircraft eventually descended into, or attempted to ditch into, the ocean a mile offshore. All five people on board died, including baseball legend Roberto Clemente.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Background
Roberto Clemente was a baseball star for the Pittsburgh Pirates, with whom he had won two World Series championships. On September 30, 1972, in his final at-bat, he had become only the 11th player in Major League Baseball history to collect 3,000 hits.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Background
In October 1972, Clemente traveled to Managua, Nicaragua to coach the Puerto Rico national baseball team in the Baseball World Cup. On December 23, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck Managua, devastating the city and killing approximately 5,000 people. Many countries sent aid to Nicaragua, inspiring Clemente to contribute to the relief effort with his own money and to personally supervise the delivery of goods. Clemente had also been convinced to become involved by local television show host, reporter and celebrity Luis Vigoreaux.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Background
Clemente had previously sent three cargo planes and a ship to help the Nicaraguans, but heard reports that the military had seized the goods intended for the earthquake victims. Suspecting profiteering by the military, he chartered a fourth plane so that he could visit Nicaragua and directly confront the military leader, believing that as a celebrity he could not be harmed.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident
The accident caused the deaths of all five people on board, including Clemente. The airplane crashed immediately after takeoff from Isla Verde International Airport, flying into the ocean at the adjacent area known as Piñones.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Cargo carrier
Clemente and a relief committee had leased the aircraft for $4,000 from a local airline, American Air Express Leasing Company, which was owned by a 27-year-old Puerto Rican named Arthur J. Rivera.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Cargo carrier
Unknown to Clemente or to the pilot, the four-engine Douglas DC-7 had suffered a non-fatal taxiway accident just 29 days before the fateful flight took place. This accident damaged the No. 2 and No. 3 propeller blades and the No. 3 engine cooler scoop. Advised to replace one of the engines, Rivera pressed his mechanics to do what they could to inspect the engine and keep it in service, but after inspecting the engines, the mechanics could not find a reason to justify replacing one.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Cargo carrier
The standard procedure after the sudden stop of a piston engine is to disassemble the engine to magnaflux its parts for cracks, but this was not done. An FAA maintenance inspector inspected the propeller shaft limits after the sudden stoppage repairs and found them within tolerances, though a later report said that he merely witnessed the inspection.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Cargo carrier
The post-war era in which cargo carriers operated surplus piston-driven prop planes was at its end, as high maintenance costs restricted the ability to keep up with newer aircraft technology. Rivera had just regained his FAA clearance to operate a cargo plane, claiming that it was his only livelihood. Struggling to keep American Air Express Leasing afloat against a tide of change in the airline industry, he began to cut corners.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Bad omens
Clemente's father, his wife Vera and son Roberto, Jr. warned him that they had bad feelings and premonitions about the flight, and just a few days before the flight, Clemente had a dream about overlooking his own funeral. However, Clemente insisted on conducting the planned relief mission and taking off on December 31 as planned, despite bad weather having hit the area near Isla Verde International Airport.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Crew
After volunteers spent most of the afternoon loading the aircraft, pilot Jerry Hill boarded the plane as the sole member of the flight crew. Owner Rivera sat in the co-pilot's seat, though he was only certified to fly the twin-engine Douglas DC-3, which had Pratt Whitney Twin Wasp engines. Rivera may not have understood the added complexity of the DC-7’s Wright R-3350 Duplex-Cyclone engine, which was nearly twice the size and power. Fransisco Matias, a fill-in mechanic employed by another airline who was moonlighting with several other mechanics for cargo carriers at the same airport, sat in the flight engineer's seat because Rivera and Hill had made several unsuccessful attempts to secure a flight engineer.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Crew
Hill, a well-qualified, seasoned pilot, was in command. He had been found by chance several days earlier while watching the plane being loaded. After another pilot had failed to show from a waitlist of itinerant pilots, Hill flew back from Miami on short notice. He sat in the plane for the first time the previous morning of the flight, and slept all day in a crew bunk to rest for the flight.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Crew
This was the aircraft's first flight since Rivera had purchased it several months earlier, and it was the first time that the pilot had flown with either Rivera or Francisco. Clemente boarded with associate Angel Lozano around the same time as the aircraft's crew.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Loaded aircraft weight
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators later estimated that the aircraft's gross weight at takeoff was 148,943 pounds, based on a fuel receipt and customs declaration. The plane had been loaded by a ground crew led by a qualified loadmaster. The calculation was based on the following estimates and measurements:


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Loaded aircraft weight
At its takeoff weight, the aircraft was three percent (4,193 pounds) over the 144,750-pound maximum takeoff weight for a DC-7C. The crew submitted a flight plan with a cargo weight of 38,288 pounds (including crew and reserve fuel); without fuel, that resulted in a takeoff weight of 116,110 pounds, which was under the 144,750-pound limit. At a minimum, the 1,420-mile one-way flight would need 14,240 pounds of fuel, which would mean a takeoff weight of 130,350 pounds, again under the limit.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Loaded aircraft weight
With a one-way fuel load, the pilot would have to divert to somewhere such as San José, Costa Rica or Panama City to refuel for the return leg. It is possible that the flight's fuel was donated, and there would be a challenge finding fuel in the devastated city of Managua. This left the investigators to guess how much fuel was actually on board, stating that "The actual weight and balance computation made by the crew was not found." Secondary documents indicated that enough fuel for a round trip was purchased and presumably loaded onto the plane,


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Weight calculations
The commercial airline industry of the 1970s used general factors in calculating takeoff weight and maximum weight limits. However, applying more current scientific knowledge may lead to a more accurate estimate of the aircraft's takeoff weight.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Weight calculations
The aircraft's fuel weight was a focus of conjecture. The investigation found evidence that the aircraft was fueled for a round trip. The investigators calculated the weight of that fuel and pushed the aircraft weight to 148,943 pounds. The 1,420-mile distance to Nicaragua was less than half the 3,605-mile range of a fully loaded DC-7C, which holds 7,825 gallons of fuel. At takeoff, the plane was filled to 60% of fuel capacity. However, the 1972 investigation was limited, because at the time, the effect of temperature on fuel density and weight was not well understood by the airline industry.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Weight calculations
Depending on temperature, gasoline ranges from under six pounds per gallon to 6.75 pounds per gallon at 60 °F. The fuel needed for the four-hour flight to Nicaragua and four-hour return to Puerto Rico was somewhere between 28,480 and 32,400 pounds, a 3,900-pound difference. Puerto Rico has a hot climate, with the December temperature usually above 80 °F, so the fuel would have actually weighed on the low side. The estimated 4,193 pounds by which the flight was overweight is equivalent to 707 gallons of fuel, 9% of a DC-7's fuel capacity, sufficient for an hour of flight.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Weight calculations
Another concept introduced after the 1970s is zero-fuel weight, the total weight of the airplane and all its contents minus the total weight of the usable fuel on board. The weight of fuel in the wings has less of a structural effect than that of the fuselage—modern planes have a zero-fuel weight that allows for increasing the maximum takeoff weight when that weight is in fuel.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Weight calculations
Air density affects the maximum takeoff weight. Colder air provides more buoyancy, more engine performance and a wider safe engine operating band. The later takeoff time meant the air temperature was 76 °F, 10 °F cooler than daytime evening air. The cooler, denser air provided both better buoyancy and increased engine performance, which at sea level provides a considerable increase to the aircraft's weight capacity (a DC-7C could see a 7,000-pound change with a 10° drop in air temperature).


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Weight calculations
The flight might not have been overloaded after all. Regardless, Hill would not have known the concepts of fuel density, zero-fuel weight or air buoyancy adjustment, though by experience he should have become familiar with the engine performance change. The NTSB investigators found that while weight was a factor in the accident, it was not the cause.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Weight calculations
A more interesting calculation is that the plane could not have landed with both a full cargo load and enough fuel for a return trip; if at takeoff the aircraft was 148,943 pounds, then in Nicaragua it would have landed after burning 14,240 pounds of fuel and would weigh 134,700 pounds, which is 25,700 pounds over the landing-weight limit. To land at a specified weight and have return fuel would limit the cargo to 12,600 pounds.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Weight calculations
The takeoff and landing limits are commercial peacetime limits, but war emergency load limits may be up to 20% higher. The war emergency takeoff limit would be 178,000 pounds and the landing limit would be 160,000; the DC-7C was within those limits, which are set for new military aircraft receiving military maintenance. Hill would have been aware of these emergency cargo limits from his time as a U.S. Air Force major flying the Douglas C-124 Globemaster II on a transpacific route (possibly the Douglas C-74 Globemaster). Whether the Nicaraguan earthquake relief was an event allowing for emergency cargo limits is an open question.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Weight calculations
Clemente's wife said she was concerned that the plane seemed old and overloaded.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Safety oversight
As air traffic control is merely responsible for directing traffic and cannot be expected to determine if a flight should take off, a lawsuit was brought charging that the FAA should have prohibited the takeoff. The FAA argued that the aircraft was overloaded rather than mechanically unsound. The court ruled that because the FAA had not inspected planes at that airport previously, it was not liable, despite its knowledge of the aircraft's condition and its failure to act. The court stated that the takeoff decision is ultimately the pilot's responsibility, though it did not find Hill at fault.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Takeoff
On the dark, moonless night of December 31, 1972, at 9:11 p.m. local time, after the previously aborted takeoff and additional mechanical work, the plane taxied around the airport's runway 7. By then the weather had cleared and visibility was at 10 miles, with only a few clouds visible.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Takeoff
After engine run-up by the crew, the flight was cleared for takeoff at 9:20:30 p.m. for the four-hour flight to Nicaragua. The aircraft took an exceptionally long takeoff roll and gained very little altitude. A left turn was commenced towards the north, and at 9:23:15 p.m., the San Juan tower received the following transmission: "N500AE coming back around." To land safely, the aircraft would have first needed to dump 32,000 pounds of fuel; as a typical dump rate is one to two tons of fuel per minute, this process would have taken between 16 and 32 minutes.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Takeoff
At or soon after the time of the last radio transmission, the plane experienced a catastrophic failure of engine No. 2 . It is possible that engine No. 3 was also lost. Engines 2 and 3 are closest to the fuselage and contain the hydraulic pumps. If both were lost, the pilot would be forced to rely on a controls reversion system. With reduced control and possibly loss of electrical power, the pilot was then faced with the challenge of ditching the aircraft into the sea while maintaining a relation to the horizon over water on a moonless night. In this scenario, the aircraft was essentially unflyable.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Takeoff
With an engine lost, the airplane  slowly descended and about 10 to 30 seconds later crashed into the Atlantic Ocean at a point approximately 11⁄2 miles offshore, and 21⁄2 miles on the 040-degree radial from the western end of Runway 25. In that time, 500 to 2,000 pounds of fuel would have dumped. In the last seconds of flight, ground effect would have kept the plane aloft, skimming the wave tops.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Takeoff
Delgado Cintrón, a mechanic who witnessed the takeoff from the ground at the airport, testified that the engines sounded even and normal. However, the plane was too low at 25 feet off the ground. Other witnesses estimated that the plane gained altitude to 100 feet. After the aircraft was out of sight behind trees, the engines sounded fine and then, a few seconds later, Cintrón heard three backfires and a large explosion, which he thought was the impact with the ocean, followed by silence.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Issues with engine design
That a DC-7 had lost an engine on takeoff was not unexpected. During World War II, twice as many aircraft were lost because of problems with the same type of engine (in aircraft such as the Boeing B-29 Superfortress) as were lost to enemy fire.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Issues with engine design
The Wright R-3350 engine that powered the DC-7 had started as a problematic multi-row radial design that was rushed into wartime production. In post-war civilian use, those problems continued, and aircraft with this engine were less favored for commercial flights and often were converted to cargo planes.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Issues with engine design
Clemente would have had no reason to have known the history of the R-3350, but Captain Hill would have had a good understanding from over 12,000 flight hours piloting multi-row, piston-powered, radial-engine aircraft over his nearly 30-year career, including the DC-4, DC-6, DC-7, C-46 and the USAF Globemaster.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Accident, Issues with engine design
An issue related to the cooling of additional rows of radial cylinders in multi-row radial engines was understood and well known. A key concern was a lean air/fuel condition causing detonation because of the high supercharger boost on such engines, which by itself and with cooling issues was dangerous. Problems with cooling had plagued the engine since its use in the hot Pacific climate during World War II, prompting the military to add an air scoop to the top of the engine cowling that directed air to cool the back cylinders. Those problems only added to the engine's sensitivity to detonation, particularly on takeoff.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Recovery
Recovery efforts started almost immediately after the aircraft went down. By 11:00 p.m., radio and television stations across Puerto Rico were informing the public about the accident. A crowd formed around Piñones Beach, many of whom tried to help search efforts. Of the five people on board the plane, only Hill's body was recovered.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Recovery
Because of extremely rough surface conditions and poor underwater visibility, the wreckage site was not discovered until January 4, 1973. On or after January 7, divers from a naval ship reported that the aircraft wreckage was scattered throughout the bottom of the ocean at a depth of 100 to 130 feet, in an area of approximately four acres. The aircraft was broken into several sections, most of them badly crushed or demolished. Both wings were separated from the fuselage. The cockpit area forward of the main junction box was destroyed and the instrument panel and mechanical controls were missing.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Recovery
The nose gear assembly was retracted. All four engines were accounted for, but none of them was found attached to the wing structure. Two of the engines were together at a distance of approximately 200 feet from the right wing, which itself was upside down on the left side of a fuselage section.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Recovery
Three engines were recovered from the ocean floor on January 11, 1973, including Nos. 2 and 3. A review of the engine log books showed that the engines had received 100-hour inspections four and five months earlier and prior to being purchased by Rivera. All spark plugs in engines 3 and 4, and a few cylinders in engines 2, 3 and 4, were replaced. During the previous flight in September, the No. 3 engine was shut down and feathered as a result of spark plug fouling.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Recovery
Part of the fuselage and the tail of the airplane were also found.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Aircraft
The accident aircraft was a Douglas DC-7CF, a freighter conversion of the DC-7 (cn/msn 45130/823), registered in the United States as N500AE. The aircraft first flew in 1957.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Causes
The NTSB concluded that after a failure of one engine the plane had inadequate power to maintain altitude during a turn (suggesting that the pilot could not dump fuel fast enough to achieve a weight-to-power ratio that allowed level flight). After a few miles, the plane flew into the ocean on a moonless night.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Causes
The lack of a horizon possibly prevented the pilot from realizing the altitude loss from only 100 feet over the ocean, which would have indicated a need to prepare for a water landing with reduced engine power on splashdown (the engines appear to have been at full power, and fuselage damage indicated an aircraft at higher speed).


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Causes
An unexplored scenario is that, following an engine loss, the pilot began fuel dumping to lighten the aircraft. The prop wash dispersed the fuel, and given the low elevation, formed a thermobaric weapon that was ignited by the burning engine. The resulting air burst destroyed the aircraft. The DC-7 contained fuel-dumping facilities. A hazard of fuel dumping is ignition of the fuel, and precautions are taken to eliminate all sources of ignition, and also to prevent turbulence that mixes the fuel with air. Aircraft do not typically explode on impact, and in this case the plane would have been more or less in level controlled flight into the water. An air burst explains the explosion heard after an engine fire was seen, as well as the heavy destruction of the fuselage.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Causes
A scenario considered by investigators but later dismissed involved a load shift on turning, which careened the plane into a wing strike with water, cartwheeling the plane along the surface. Two engines were found several hundred feet directly ahead of the wing, indicating a level entry into the water.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Causes
The cause of the crash could not be determined precisely because of the difficulties encountered while attempting to recover the wreckage. Probable causes were attributed to lean detonation, poor maintenance, excessive wear in engine components, engine damage from a previous taxiing accident that was not repaired, an uncertified co-pilot, an uncertified flight engineer, a 4,000-pound fuel overload and inadequate crew preparation in correcting these issues.


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Causes
Complete power loss—complete engine failure/flameout - 1 engine (No. 2)


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, Causes
Partial power loss—partial loss of power - 1 engine (No. 3) (presumably because of a lack of adequate power for three engines)


1972 Puerto Rico DC-7 crash, In popular culture
The crash is referred to in the 2011 film The Ides of March.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder
On 22 April 1972, Poon Sai Im, a 58-year-old provisions shop owner who lived in Pulau Ubin, Singapore, was ambushed by two men, who had gone from the mainland to the island to rob her of money, cigarettes and gold items. When one of Poon's attackers went into the room to look for valuables, the other attacker, 19-year-old Mohamed Yasin bin Hussin, alias Rosli, took upon himself to rape the victim and while doing so caused the elderly victim to die from fatal rib fractures (caused by Yasin sitting on top of her). Both men were eventually arrested nine months after the case and tried for murder.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder
Yasin was initially found guilty of murder and subjected to the death sentence (the other man was convicted of and jailed for robbery), but before he could be executed, Yasin won his appeal to the Privy Council in London. He was subsequently taken to court to be tried for rape and consequently spent ten years in prison before his release in 1983. Yasin's case was a subject of debate and question in Singapore's criminal law regarding the definition of murder under Section 300(c) of the Penal Code, in which the offence of murder constitutes one's intentional causing of fatal injuries to a person despite having no intention to kill.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Pulau Ubin murder
In early April 1972, Mohamed Yasin bin Hussin (born 1953; died unknown), alias Rosli, then 19 years old, formed an intention to rob a 58-year-old shop owner from Pulau Ubin. The shop owner was a widow named Poon Sai Im, who made a living by selling provisions in a shophouse. Her business had earned her quite some profit that considered her a rich person.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Pulau Ubin murder
Having knew that Poon was quite wealthy and kept a lot of money in her house, Yasin approached his friend and fellow labourer, 25-year-old Harun bin Ripin (born 1946; died unknown) to join him in the robbery attempt. Harun initially neither agreed nor declined the request, but eventually on 22 April 1972, he agreed to go along with Yasin's plan. A third man, only known as Maarof, was initially also approached to join the both of them, but he declined, saying that he was not interested.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Pulau Ubin murder
That night, Yasin and Harun rowed a sampan boat from Changi Point Jetty to Pulau Ubin, and both arrived at the beach nearby Poon’s house. After reaching the house, Harun devised a plan to lure Poon out of the hut. Yasin then executed the plan and went to Poon’s chicken pen where he disturbed the chickens, which led to Poon unlocking her door and came out. Upon the appearance of the woman, Yasin and Harun made their move and caught hold of Poon and covered her mouth to prevent her from shouting.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Pulau Ubin murder
As the two men brought her inside the house and pinned her down, Harun left Yasin alone to go search for items to steal in the other parts of the house. As Yasin was struggling to restrain Poon, he looked down and noticed that Poon’s baggy trousers had slipped off her waist, exposing her naked lower half. Upon caught sight of it, the teenager formed an impulse to have sexual penetration and thus began to take off his trousers to rape the elderly woman. During which, Yasin had sat onto the chest of the victim and covered her mouth to stop her from calling for help. It was after he finished raping the woman, when 19-year-old Yasin noticed that Poon had become motionless and stopped moving.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Pulau Ubin murder
Just at this moment, Harun returned to the kitchen with $40 in cash, 10 packets of cigarettes and a gold ring. Upon seeing Poon’s motionless body, he asked Yasin what had happened. After Yasin told him that he had raped the woman, the two men examined Poon and realised that she was dead. After which, the pair quickly took the corpse to the sea, and they splashed seawater on the deceased Poon’s face to revive her, and it failed. The men quickly boarded their sampan and took the body with them. It was in the ocean that both Yasin and Harun disposed of the 58-year-old woman’s corpse into the sea before they returned to Singapore.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Discovery of the victim and cause of death
The next day, on 23 April 1972, Poon’s youngest daughter Lim Ah Moi went to her mother’s house and found that her mother was missing. She informed her boatman husband Ng Tan Tee, alias Tong San, about this and found her house ransacked. The couple then reported it to the police.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Discovery of the victim and cause of death
A day later, a fisherman fished out a semi-nude body of a woman and reported it to the police. The police managed to identify the deceased woman as the missing Poon Sai Im. Initially, the police presumed that she may have accidentally drowned in the sea, but when the body was taken to Outram Hospital for an autopsy, the truth came out.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Discovery of the victim and cause of death
Forensic pathologist and professor Chao Tzee Cheng, who was the coroner that examined Poon’s corpse, found that the woman was not dead by drowning but by murder. He found a total of nine fractures on the victim’s ribs, which he ascertained as the cause of death as these fractures were sufficient to cause cardiac arrest and thus lead to death given her age and the bones’ resulting fragility. These fractures were caused by compressions applied on her chest, which was actually a result of Yasin sitting on Poon's chest while he restrained and raped her before her death.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Discovery of the victim and cause of death
Professor Chao also found bruises on her face and wrists, which were defensive injuries caused by Poon trying to defend herself against her attacker(s) and her being punched or hit by a blunt object. He also told police that the woman was sexually assaulted, as there were abrasions and injuries on her vaginal wall and bruises on her thighs, showing that someone used force to pry her thighs open and presumably raped her. These were presented in the forensic report which Professor Chao submitted to the courts. Police investigations took place but there was no progress for the next nine months due to the lack of clues in the case.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin and Harun’s murder trial, Arrest and legal proceedings
Nine months later, on 9 February 1973, when he was arrested for another crime, 26-year-old Harun surprised his police interrogators by confessing to them about his involvement in the then-unsolved Pulau Ubin robbery. He also named Yasin as his accomplice.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin and Harun’s murder trial, Arrest and legal proceedings
This confession led to Yasin's arrest the next day, and the two men were charged with the murder of Poon Sai Im (murder was, back then, a hanging offence). They were tried together in the same trial in the High Court of mainland Singapore for this particular case. Maarof, the third man, was initially also arrested but subsequently, the police released him as he was found to be not involved in the robbery or murder.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin and Harun’s murder trial, Arrest and legal proceedings
Initially, during their interrogations and pre-trial conferences, both Yasin and Harun admitted to their respective roles in the robbery and murder of Poon. However, as the men’s trial started on 5 March 1974, the pair denied that they gave their statements voluntarily and they were being induced by the police interrogators to give them these statements as part of a deal to avoid the death penalty, and to face only charges of robbery and rape.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin and Harun’s murder trial, Arrest and legal proceedings
Yasin even said he was forced to sign to acknowledge the statements under the threat that the police officers would physically assault him if he did not do so. Later, after a trial within a trial, the two judges hearing the case - Choor Singh and A. V. Winslow - ruled that these statements should be admitted as evidence.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin and Harun’s murder trial, Arrest and legal proceedings
After the prosecution presented its case, and after the pathologist Chao gave his evidence to the courts, both Yasin and Harun were told to give their defence. Yasin made an unsworn statement on the dock, claiming that he did not rape the victim despite what he had admitted to in his statements. He also stated he did not intend to cause death and only wanted to cover Poon’s mouth to prevent her from shouting. On the other hand, Harun stated he only intended to steal from Poon and not to kill anyone.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin and Harun’s murder trial, Arrest and legal proceedings
The lawyers of Yasin and Harun emphasised in their closing submissions that their clients only intended to commit theft and their lack of weapons showed that they had not planned violence. Harun’s lawyer Nathan Isaac also raised the fact that his client was not aware of what Yasin did to the widow before her death. Yasin’s lawyer G Raman also stated that there was no evidence to prove that the fatal rib fractures were caused intentionally by Yasin, or furthermore, had even been caused by Yasin.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin and Harun’s murder trial, Arrest and legal proceedings
In rebuttal, the prosecution, led by Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Pala Krishnan argued that regardless of whether the two defendants were armed, as long as there was evidence to show that the pair’s common intention was robbery and the injuries inflicted by Yasin upon Poon were sufficient in the ordinary cause of nature to cause death, then the two would be guilty of murder.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin and Harun’s murder trial, Sentences
On 15 March 1974, at the end of the trial, the two judges released their verdict, with Justice Winslow pronouncing the written verdict in court.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin and Harun’s murder trial, Sentences
In their judgement, both Justices Winslow and Singh were satisfied that the fatal injury was intentionally inflicted upon the victim by Yasin, and such injury was sufficient in the ordinary cause of nature to cause death. They were also satisfied that the two men had shared a common intention to commit robbery by together luring Poon out of her house.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin and Harun’s murder trial, Sentences
They also noted the fact that while Harun was inside the other room looking for valuables, Yasin had raped Poon while restraining the woman during the robbery and Harun’s absence, and so the two judges cannot rule out the theory that Yasin had caused the nine fatal rib fractures on Poon in furtherance of his intention to rape the elderly woman, leading to her death.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin and Harun’s murder trial, Sentences
Aside from this, given the facts of the case, the judges found that Harun could not be held liable for a conviction of murder by being guilty through the legal definition of common intention given that Yasin did the killing through his own individual impulse to commit sexual assault, hence they find 28-year-old Harun guilty of robbery by night, and sentenced him to 12 years’ imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin and Harun’s murder trial, Sentences
As for Yasin, he was found guilty of murder for causing Poon’s death, and the two judges hereby sentenced him to death by hanging. Yasin was promptly placed on death row in Changi Prison with 14 other inmates waiting to be executed (among them were the seven adult culprits of the 1971 Gold Bars triple murders).


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin's appeal and Privy Council's reprieve
After he was sentenced to death, Yasin submitted an appeal against the death sentence to the Court of Appeal. On 4 November 1974, however, the three judges hearing the appeal - T Kulasekaram, Tan Ah Tah and Wee Chong Jin (also Chief Justice of Singapore) - found that there was no doubt that Yasin had intentionally caused the nine fatal broken rib injuries on 58-year-old Poon, which therefore fitted the definition of murder under Section 300(c) of the Penal Code and thus appropriate for Yasin to be convicted of murder by application of the law. They also accepted the forensic evidence by Professor Chao, as argued by prosecutor Glenn Knight (who replaced Pala Krishnan and assigned the case), that the fractures were caused by compression of the chest with some force, This compelled the judges to dismiss Yasin’s appeal.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin's appeal and Privy Council's reprieve
After the failure of his appeal at the Court of Appeal, Yasin was left with two remaining avenues of appeal - one was to the Privy Council in London and another was to appeal for a pardon from the President of Singapore - which would enable him to escape the gallows if successful. Yasin was later granted leave to appeal to the Privy Council, which heard his appeal on 17 May 1975.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin's appeal and Privy Council's reprieve
On 4 February 1976, Singapore’s national newspaper The Straits Times reported that Yasin had successfully escaped the death sentence when the Privy Council allowed his appeal against the death sentence. In their verdict, the three Privy Council judges, led by Lord Diplock, found that there was no evidence to suggest that Yasin had intended to cause the death of Poon when he sat on her chest.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin's appeal and Privy Council's reprieve
They also said that while the prosecution had duly proven that Yasin knew what he was doing and intended to sit on the chest (which was voluntary), they commented that it failed to give rise to the contention that Yasin had intended to cause the fatal rib fractures on Poon or knew that the injuries he caused to the victim would be sufficient to kill her.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin's appeal and Privy Council's reprieve
The three Lords further scrutinized the case and stated that the prosecution’s burden of proof was to show that Yasin had indeed sat on the chest of Poon to stop her from struggling and in the process, intentionally caused the grave injuries that were medically possible to cause the death of someone of Poon’s original age and build even if Yasin himself genuinely did not have the medical knowledge of what he was doing, and they said the prosecution failed to fulfill it, since there was no evidence of whether Yasin had indeed sat on Poon’s chest and the judges only inferred that Yasin did so from the forensic evidence provided by Professor Chao.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin's appeal and Privy Council's reprieve
As such, the Privy Council from London dismissed the murder charge and revoked Yasin’s death sentence. Instead, they found him guilty of causing death by a rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide under Section 304A of the Penal Code. The case was remitted back to the Court of Appeal in Singapore for re-sentencing. It was also confirmed that Yasin would be facing a re-trial for the rape of Poon while causing her to die.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Yasin's appeal and Privy Council's reprieve
On 18 May 1976, Yasin was sentenced to the maximum of two years’ imprisonment for the reduced charge he was convicted of.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Re-trial of Yasin for rape
Following the reprieve from death row by the Privy Council, Yasin was soon brought back to court in Singapore, with the prosecution charged him with raping Poon. DPP Sant Singh became in charge of the case, and defence lawyer Murugason became Yasin's new lawyer for the retrial.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Re-trial of Yasin for rape
Yasin claimed trial in the High Court for rape on 9 May 1977. His former accomplice Harun, who was then serving his 12-year sentence in Changi Prison, was called by the prosecution to be a witness against Yasin. Harun, who took the stand on 11 May 1977, told the court that Yasin had done the act while he was in another room ransacking for valuables, and claimed that when he returned, he asked Yasin what happened, with Yasin replying to him that he had intercourse with the woman. Yasin denied telling Harun that he had sexually penetrated the elderly woman, and insisted that he had not raped the woman and only intended to come to Pulau Ubin with Harun to steal from Poon, who kept a lot of cash in her home.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Re-trial of Yasin for rape
On 12 May 1977, Yasin’s trial for rape ended. High Court judge A. P. Rajah determined that Yasin had indeed intended to have sex with Poon against her will. Despite so, Justice Rajah fell short of finding Yasin fully guilty of rape and instead convict the former labourer of attempted rape, as from the nature of the forensic evidence, he was not entirely satisfied that Yasin had sexual intercourse with the victim while she was still alive, and thus gave Yasin the benefit of the doubt.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Re-trial of Yasin for rape
Despite not finding him guilty of rape, Justice Rajah admonished Yasin for committing such an atrocious crime on the unfortunate Poon, in his own words, “However, I find that you manifested this intention to have intercourse with the woman, and in furtherance of your intention, you did a number of acts against the deceased with a view to attaining your objective.”


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Re-trial of Yasin for rape
For his conviction of attempted rape, Yasin was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment for the crime. The sentence was backdated to the date of his arrest on 10 February 1973. The two-year sentence which Yasin received for killing Poon was to run consecutively with the term of eight years.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Release and aftermath, Release from prison
According to prison statistics released by True Files, it was revealed that after serving a total of 10 years in prison since 1973, Yasin was released in 1983 after serving his full sentence for the rape and murder of Poon.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Release and aftermath, Release from prison
After his release in 1983, Yasin led a low-profile life and his whereabouts were unknown.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Release and aftermath, Release from prison
Similarly, Yasin’s former accomplice Harun was released in 1985 after spending 12 years (his full sentence) in Changi Prison.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Release and aftermath, Abolition of avenue of appeal to the Privy Council
In the aftermath of Yasin's case, Singapore continued its legal avenue to appeal to the Privy Council regarding its cases. It was only in April 1994 that this avenue was finally abolished, leaving only the Court of Appeal of Singapore, the highest court of Singapore, as the final avenue where all criminals, including death row inmates, could appeal against the verdicts of the lower courts of the nation.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Release and aftermath, Abolition of avenue of appeal to the Privy Council
Many lawyers reportedly did not react negatively to the abolition, as the general feeling among the legal community was that Singapore, as an independent and sovereign nation, should not rely on foreign jurisdictions to decide their own cases and the judges from London might not be willing to be involved in the legal developments of Singapore and its cases.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Release and aftermath, In the media
More than 32 years after the murder of Poon Sai Im, the case of Yasin and Harun were re-enacted in Singaporean crime show True Files. It aired as the sixth episode of the show’s third season on 29 November 2004, and was currently viewable via meWATCH since 5 February 2016. Yasin’s former lawyer G Raman, and Sant Singh, the former prosecutor who prosecuted Yasin for rape, were both interviewed on-screen.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Release and aftermath, In the media
G Raman, who was interviewed first, stated that he actually felt relieved that his former client, who did not intend to cause death, was being spared from the gallows, though he simultaneously felt disturbed as a life had been lost. He said that because of this, even if he had escaped the death penalty, Yasin would not escape the condemnation which society would hold against him for killing a person.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Release and aftermath, In the media
Sant Singh, who was interviewed last, told the interviewers that even till today, he firmly believed that Yasin was not remorseful at all for murdering and raping Poon, from how he denied till the end that he sexually assaulted the elderly woman before he caused her to die on that night of 22 April 1972. He said that it was a hideous crime for raping a woman, especially an elderly woman.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Release and aftermath, In the media
In the True Files episode, a notable criminal lawyer named Subhas Anandan was also interviewed. Although he was not involved in the case, Subhas gave his analysis of Yasin’s case and explained the apparent differences between British law and Singaporean law (which was inherited from the British since its colonial period). He stated that some countries required a motive to find a person guilty of murder, while Singapore did not need to prove any motive behind a murder to find a person guilty, as long as there is an intention to cause death or any bodily injury resulting in death. He stated that the Privy Council back then may have felt that Yasin never intended to cause the fatal injury and thus it cannot constitute as an offence of murder and concluded that the woman had just unfortunately died.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Release and aftermath, In the media
Another crime show The Whispers of the Dead, which featured the notable cases of Professor Chao, who died in 2000, has also featured the case of Yasin and the autopsy of Poon. In this re-enactment, Yasin’s identity was changed to Ibrahim, in order to protect his identity and fictionalize the real-life events featured in the episode. Similarly, Poon’s name was changed to Lau Siew Hwa and Harun’s name was changed to Shahul for these purposes. The episode was broadcast in 2014.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Release and aftermath, In the media
A webpage dedicated to the late Professor Chao, titled Dead Men Do Tell Tales, was published after his passing in 2000, and it recounted some of the notable cases he performed autopsies in and cracked before. The Pulau Ubin murder in 1972 was included among the recounted cases. In this article, Yasin's name was changed to Abdul Rahim, and Harun was renamed as Mansur. The victim's name was changed to Choo Lay Kim. The changes in the identity were possibly made to protect the identities of those involved, but one sentence had, by error, mentioned Yasin's real name.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Release and aftermath, In the media
Professor Chao's comments on Yasin's case were also published in the article, and he said (extracted from the website):


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Release and aftermath, In the media
"...if there had been no autopsy, (Poon) might have been certified as having died by drowning. There would have been no charge of murder, no case would have gone up to the Privy Council, and (Yasin) would not have been charged with and finally convicted for rape instead."


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Significance of case
In the aftermath of Yasin’s case, the Privy Council’s verdict, titled Mohamed Yasin bin Hussin v Public Prosecutor, became one of the notable judgements that questioned the context, definition and existence of murder under Section 300(c) of the Penal Code (under which Yasin was originally convicted of).


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Significance of case
Original text of Section 300(c) (Extracted from the Penal Code):


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Significance of case
(c): if it is done with the intention of causing bodily injury to any person, and the bodily injury intended to be inflicted is sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Significance of case
There were discussions related to the Privy Council’s verdict regarding the need to find a person guilty of murder with no intention to kill. The verdict by the Privy Council was in the direction of a “precise injury” approach, which was produced by the three Lords who felt there was a lack of intention on Yasin’s part to cause the precise injuries to cause Poon’s death.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Significance of case
It contradicted the Singaporean courts’ normal procedure to convict a person of murder with a “broad injury” approach, which they adopted from an Indian court case verdict Virsa Singh v the State of Punjabi relating to find a person guilty of intentionally inflicting a serious injury which is sufficient to kill regardless of whether he/she knew the fatality of the injury even if he/she had no intention to kill, leading to confusion among the judges in Singapore


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Significance of case
Being constantly cited in later murder verdicts in later years since 1976, the Yasin verdict was one of the judgements in which it questioned the problematic application of Section 300(c) in court cases to find a person guilty of murder with no intention to cause death, and its wording gave rise to ambiguity to its real definition.


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Significance of case
Other cases like Lim Poh Lye and Tan Chee Wee had also, like Yasin’s case, asked such a question about the section, and it contained the judges’ own reservations about sentencing an offender, who never intended to kill in the first place or had any knowledge that death would arise from the injuries caused, to death for murder. There was also some criticism directed at the Yasin verdict for not giving a precise explanation about the precise injury approach or its decision, in relation to the context of Section 300(c) (eg. Tan Cheow Bok v PP).


1972 Pulau Ubin murder, Significance of case
The Privy Council’s verdict over Yasin’s case is included as a case study in the syllabus of Singapore’s law courses in universities like National University of Singapore and Singapore Management University. It is also included as one of the subjects tested in the bar examinations in Singapore.


1972 Punjab Legislative Assembly election
Legislative Assembly elections were held in the Indian state of Punjab in 1972 to elect the members of the Punjab Legislative Assembly. President's rule was imposed before the election. Chief Minister Zail Singh was elected as the leader of the ruling party. Major opposition party was Shiromani Akali Dal led by leader of Opposition Parkash Singh Badal.


1972 Purdue Boilermakers football team
The 1972 Purdue Boilermakers football team represented Purdue University during the 1972 Big Ten Conference football season. It was Bob DeMoss' final season as head coach of the team.


1972 Purdue Boilermakers football team
This was the first time Purdue played an 11-game schedule. Every Big Ten team except the Boilermakers and Ohio State added an 11th game for the first time in 1971. The Buckeyes did not play an 11-game slate until 1974.


1972 Purdue Boilermakers football team, Game summaries, Indiana
Otis Armstrong carried 32 times for 276 yards, breaking his own single-game school rushing record (233) and passing Wisconsin's Alan Ameche for most career rushing yards in the Big Ten with 3,316.


1972 Qatari coup d'état
The 1972 Qatari coup d'état was a bloodless palace coup that took place in Qatar on 22 February 1972. The coup was carried out by then heir apparent and Prime Minister Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, who took control of the country while his cousin, Emir Ahmad bin Ali Al Thani, was on a visit to Iran.


1972 Qatari coup d'état
While many Western news outlets referred to the event as a coup, the Qatari population merely considered it to be a succession of power.


1972 Qatari coup d'état, Aftermath
The initial activity of the new Emir was the process of the reorganization of the government. The process saw a dramatic shift in the hierarchy of authority. Khalifa bin Hamad immensely reduced the traditional powers afforded to the heir apparent while projecting all of the power onto himself. He appointed Suhaim bin Hamad Al Thani as Minister of Foreign Affairs; he also appointed an adviser to himself regarding the day-to-day affairs. Furthermore, he limited the financial privileges of members of the ruling Al Thani family.


1972 Qatari coup d'état, Aftermath
After his deposition, the former Emir lived in exile in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and choose to remain in exile until his death in 1977.


1972 Qir earthquake
The 1972 Qir earthquake occurred at 05:36 local time (02:06 UTC) on April 10, 1972. It had a magnitude of 6.7 on the moment magnitude scale and a maximum perceived intensity of IX (Violent) on the Mercalli intensity scale. The epicentre was in the province of Fars in southern Iran. The earthquake caused the destruction of Qir and serious damage to towns and villages in the surrounding area. The estimated number of deaths is 5,374, with a further 1,710 injured.


1972 Qir earthquake, Tectonic setting
The earthquake occurred in the Fars Domain of the Zagros fold and thrust belt, which forms part of the collisional zone between the Arabian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The Fars Domain lies at the southeastern end of the Zagros and is part of the 'simply folded belt', which is characterised by detachment folding over the late Neoproterozoic to Early Cambrian Hormuz salt layer. Most earthquakes have epicenters beneath the salt layer and are thought to represent reverse faulting in the underlying basement, possibly involving the reactivation of older rift faults.


1972 Qir earthquake, Earthquake
The earthquake is thought to have been caused by rupture along a WNW-ESE trending reverse fault. The focal mechanism suggests that the reverse fault is moderately-dipping to either south or north.


1972 Qir earthquake, Earthquake
The earthquake was preceded by a series of foreshocks in March 1972, which caused some of the inhabitants of Hingam and Karzin to move out of their houses.


1972 Qir earthquake, Damage
Initial casualty reports (compiled on April 28, 1972) showed that there were 3,399 deaths in Qir (two-thirds of the population), with a further 889 injured. There were 400 deaths in Gavakei (almost half of the population) and a further 300 in Bian (a third of the population) and 150 in Sekehravan (about a quarter of the population). The total number of deaths based on initial reports was 5,374 with a further 1,710 injured.


1972 Qir earthquake, Damage
The methods of construction used in that affected area led to the high levels of damage. Most buildings were built of adobe brick with a relatively heavy flat roof of thick date palm beams resting directly on the brick walls. The addition of layers of mud and straw for waterproofing increased the load on the walls. These structures have a very low resistance to earthquake shaking and most of the deaths occurred due to the collapse of such buildings.


1972 Qir earthquake, Damage
More modern types of construction generally fared little better, as they were not properly engineered and lacked many of the elements that would have made them more resistant. Even some of the engineered buildings were badly damaged due to poor design and construction techniques, such as a lack of anchoring between the steel roof I-beams and the reinforced concrete tie-beams on which they rested. One structure, the Shahabad bridge that was well-engineered and constructed using modern techniques, was almost undamaged, compared to the adobe houses in a neighbouring village, all of which collapsed.


1972 Qir earthquake, Damage
The earthquake caused damage to qanats (water tunnels), with the destruction of 180 wells. The flow of some springs was disrupted.


1972 Queen's Club Championships
The 1972 Queen's Club Championships, also known by its sponsored name Rothmans London Grass Court Championships, was a combined men's and women's tennis tournament played on grass courts at the Queen's Club in London in the United Kingdom that was part of the 1972 Commercial Union Assurance Grand Prix and the 1972 Virginia Slims Circuit. The tournament was held from 19 June through  24 June 1972. In the semifinal of the men's singles event 44-year old Pancho Gonzales was leading by a set against John Paish when he was disqualified by the tournament referee after an argument over the replacement of a linesman. Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert won the singles titles.


1972 Queen's Club Championships, Finals, Men's Doubles
Jim McManus /  Jim Osborne defeated  Jürgen Fassbender /  Karl Meiler 4–6, 6–3, 7–5


1972 Queen's Club Championships, Finals, Women's Doubles
Rosie Casals /  Billie Jean King defeated  Brenda Kirk /  Pat Walkden 5–7, 6–0, 6–2


1972 Queen's Club Championships – Men's Doubles
Tom Okker and Marty Riessen were the defending champions, but did not participate this year.


1972 Queen's Club Championships – Men's Doubles
Jim McManus and Jim Osborne won the title, defeating Jürgen Fassbender and Karl Meiler 4–6, 6–3, 7–5 in the final.


1972 Queen's Club Championships – Men's Singles
Stan Smith was the defending champion, but lost in the quarterfinals this year.


1972 Queen's Club Championships – Men's Singles
Jimmy Connors won the title, defeating John Paish 6–2, 6–3 in the final.


1972 Queensland state election
Elections were held in the Australian state of Queensland on 27 May 1972 to elect the 82 members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland.


1972 Queensland state election
The Country-Liberal Coalition won its sixth consecutive victory since it won government in 1957 and also its second victory under Joh Bjelke-Petersen.


1972 Queensland state election, Results
Queensland state election, 27 May 1972Legislative Assembly << 1969–1974 >>


1972 Race of Champions
The 1972 Race of Champions was a non-championship Formula One race held at Brands Hatch on 19 March 1972. The race was also open to Formula 5000 cars. F1 driver Emerson Fittipaldi qualified on pole, set fastest lap and won. Alan Rollinson was the best-placed F5000 finisher, and tenth overall.


1972 Race of Champions, Classification
1McRae withdrew in protest after having had his win in the F5000 Championship race overturned.


1972 Railway Cup Hurling Championship
The 1972 Railway Cup Hurling Championship was the 46th series of the Railway Cup, an annual hurling tournament and organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association. The tournament took place between 26 January and 17 March 1972.


1972 Railway Cup Hurling Championship
For the first time ever five teams participated. These included the four historic provinces of Ireland, Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster, as well as a team representing the Combined Universities.


1972 Railway Cup Hurling Championship, Participants
Since the inaugural tournament in 1927 Connacht, Leinster and Munster had participated in every running of the championship since then. Ulster joined the tournament in 1944 and immediately became regular participants. In late 1971 an application from the Universities' Council to enter a Combined Universities team in both the hurling and Gaelic football Railway Cup competitions was discussed by the Central Council of the GAA. The proposal was readily accepted and the Combined Universities team was permitted to participate.


1972 Railway Cup Hurling Championship, Media coverage
The Railway Cup final was broadcast live and in colour on RTÉ Television.


1972 Rainier International Tennis Classic
The 1972 Rainier International Tennis Classic was a men's tennis tournament staged Seattle, Washington in the United States that was part of the Grand Prix circuit and categorized as a Group C event. The tournament was played on outdoor hard courts and was held from September 11 until September 17, 1972. It was the inaugural edition of the tournament and Ilie Năstase won the singles title.


1972 Rainier International Tennis Classic, Finals, Doubles
Geoff Masters /  Ross Case defeated  Jean-Baptiste Chanfreau /  Wanaro N'Godrella 4–6, 7–6, 6–4


1972 Rebel 400
The 1972 Rebel 400 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series event that was held on April 16, 1972 at Darlington Speedway in Darlington, South Carolina.