Pan Am shut down on this day in 1991 | Eyewitness News Vault
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- Опубликовано: 3 дек 2019
- On December 4, 1991, Pan Am Airlines suddenly ceased operations to the surprise of travelers around the country.
Eyewitness News was at JFK Airport that day to speak to passengers who had already boarded their planes when their flights came to an abrupt end.
What do you remember about the iconic airline?
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1:43 it was extremely nice from the employees to continue helping the passengers.
That's a great employee and wonderful human being God bless these people for helping out . If I worked as an airline ticket agent I would try to help passengers get home . I treat them the way I like to be treated .
@Rik Mehtai doubt you had to force her 😆
Humanity back then is hundred times better now! We can blame Magats and Far left nuts for ruining our country. Moderates need to get rid of these fringe lunatics on right and left!
Extremely NICE!
The lower level employees have to take the full on blow of angry customers if anything happens to the company. Even though the upper management is at fault for making bad decisions for the company.
"The only way to get your money back is to *static* and wait for a refund."
imagine if that issue in the tape was on the first broadcast lol
that shi scared me
It might have been...that was not a consumer VCR drop...it sounds like something got in the way of the satellite dish picking up the signal at the time.
It was intentional
@@jayson8372 is It Possible
Lol total intentional.
2:27 and an additional jump scare for headphone users. Must be Pan Am's last hurrah or something.
Scared the holy bejeezus out of me.
It was just as he was explaining how to get a refund...
Exactly
I’m a headphone user
It scared me because I watched a lot of analog horror...
@@theeaglesfan6234 press F to pay respects
F
This still hurts. I worked at Pan Am in IT just short of 10 years when they shut down. Best job I ever had. Best people I ever worked with. I still carry my Pan Am ID in my wallet.
I was working for United when this happened. I got a call from a woman who had flown to Buenos Aires the week before to meet her boyfriend's parents and then couldn't get home to New York. She had to buy a one-way return on UA and was very upset. But there was nothing I could do. I calmed her down and somehow, over the next three years, we became friends even though we never met. She sent me pictures from her bachelorette party and her honeymoon. She sent me a birth announcement when they had their first baby. At one point I helped some of her mother's friends in Miami because she told them to call and ask for me personally. It was very strange.
BTW, I flew PA a couple of times before that and always had a good experience. So thanks for that.
What a sad day. Pan Am was a special airline. Thank you for all you did when you were with Pan Am
I feel your pain, I was living in Miami then and used to go to Brazil all the time, it was either Pan Am or VARIG, I knew all the people at MIA from both airlines, then Pan Am died, then Eastern, then VARIG and so many others, very sad, regards from Chicago now!
Y’all were better than any AA
It does still hurt. My dad worked for Pan Am for close to 30 years. He knew all the crew that died on the Lockbie bombing flight. He worked out of SF for over a decade and then London Heathrow for another 16 years. Because of Pan Am I grew up and did all my schooling in the UK, a place I call my home. My first ever flight as a baby was on Pan Am and then a full glorious 20 year experience flying with them throughout my childhood up to college days. Since my mother was from Peru we were so fortunate to be able to go see family quite often. I’m proud and I feel very lucky to have been a Pan Am “brat” as long as I was 🤣. Free flights all over the world. There will never other airline like Pan Am and some of my most nostalgic moments are when I think about those days, flying those beautiful planes with my dad and the PanAm family… I’ll never forget any of you…miss it all so very much❤ I have so much Pan Am paraphernalia in boxes that I’ll share with the world one day. So much history. One of my favorite being Ringo Star’s autograph on a first class flight from London to New York, he signed it in on the menu which at the time was a gorgeous vintage print of the first Pam Am planes. My mother remembers thinking, “ who on earth is being allowed to come into first class in ripped tattered jeans? It didn’t take long to realize who it was and then half way through the flight she mustered up the courage to go across the aisle and ask him for his autograph- he was very kind and funny,she said. Sigh 😌
Can you imagine if that happened today? People would be throwing furniture, screaming, attacking the ground crew, completely flipping out with an exaggerated sense of entitlement. All credit to the staff and how they were clearly handling the end of their airline and their own careers.
So what do you do when this happens to you WITHOUT WARNING ⚠️. You show up at the airport and the airline you traveling on is OUT OF BUSINESS. How do you get home ?
It did happen, Thomas cook U.K.
How true. Today, LAPD S.W.A.T. would need to be called if passengers found out the airline was out of pretzels. It was nice of the staff to stick around to finish their shifts. Today, the check-in counter would be empty, as without proper riot gear, staff would be in danger. Unfortunately, Pan Am was losing money for years and years. It just was never known when the last day would be until it happened.
Actually it will not happen today. The US government will give infinite bailout instead. They've done again and again after 2008 only to make the executives rich
Except their careers weren't over.
They prolly got easily hired by other airlines since pan am exit would have left a huge void for other airlines to fill in.
Something similar happened with jet airways.
Pan Am was one of the few US Airliners to fly to Africa, Eastern Europe, Middle East, South Asia. Very historical Airline for it's time. Flew to all 6 continents!
Pan Am was great but I disagree most flights flew to Europe in the 90s
Pan An was at one time the largest air carrier only Aeroflot of the then U S.S.R former Russian empire was bigger .
There’s 7 continents in the world…
@@joelaherne8566 Yeah, but I don't think they went to Antarctica...
@@joelaherne8566 try to keep up with the conversation.
People were talking about where airlines flew to and this is why he said “all 6 continents”….we are not commercially flying to Antarctica yet dum dum.
“What do you do if you have a Pan Am ticket?” Wait about 30 years and auction it off on eBay.
Dispute the charge.
Very sad. It was nice for the employees to still working even after they had been let go !
My father retired shortly before this day. When this happened, I saw him cry a few tears. He loved Pan Am as did we all. I miss that life to this day.
30 years later I wonder if the passengers still got their refund back. LMAO
2:27 rip headphone users.
That scared me lmao
Our family flew each summer during the 1960'S and early 70's From Alaska to Atlanta. Pan Am employees were the BEST ever. We had 5 small children in our family and they looked after us as if
we were their own. A sense of pride in their job, absolutely a different time. It's a shame the way things ended for Pan-Am. I will always remember how fantastic they were. Pilots, Flight attendants, ground crew and everyone who worked for them.
West Jet = Junior Pan-Am
70s, not 70's. Seventies, not Seventie's. 🙂
@@Locutus Oh, what the heck, I'll just pile on lol: 1970s, or '70s.
We had three PhD's working on the ticket counter in Honolulu. That's the level of employees we had. I miss it every day. I married a Pan Am Stewardess (50 years this year) - if you weren't VERY good looking you didn't get past the first interview. College (rarer back then) and at least two languages (one fluent) besides English were required. Many Euro girls because of the language requirements. We had three kinds of passengers - Rich people, businessmen and people who have saved (no credit cards back then) up for a vacation. They dressed and acted like they were in church and we treated them like royalty. Today: "Excuse me madam - would you please remove your bare dirty smelly feet from between our seats?" "Eff you! I paid for my ticket!"
I remember when I heard the news, I was in shock. After the Lockerby crash, things seemed to go downhill for them. I felt sorry for the employees, but kudos to them for helping redirect passengers to other airlines for flights and kudos to Delta for honoring the tickets. If this had happened today, there would be a lot of drama from the passengers, flipping out and causing a scene. The Golden age of flying is a thing of the past.
Andrew,
You tapped into the real reason the airline folded.
Pan Am was found guilty of negligent security in Germany where the Lockerbie PanAm flight originated. It cost hundreds of millions of dollars. They never recovered.
You can point at the decision makers that be in this case in general.
If this had happened today the employees would not have stuck around, Delta would not be honoring tickets, and no one would be getting a refund, so the irate passengers would be justified. There is very little concept of customer service in the airline industry these days
@@mananimal3644 I could see that, tho oddly I don't remember anything about that point...
@@Altoclarinets They don't need customer service--if you put it on cc, just dump the entire thing in THEIR lap and MAKE them give you a refund.
If you didn't pay it yet, dispute the charge.
If you did, gripe until they give you your money.
Pan Am was one of the greatest airlines, its service was second to none, I miss it!
Miss the blonde trim stewardesses with pill box hats and white gloves serving coffee a and lighting cigaretes and cigars with a 😃 smile!
The 1988 crash was deviation
A friend of mine had a lot of Pan Am frequent flyer miles and decided he should use them up in case Pan Am went out of business. He was somewhere down in South America, I think Paraguay, and when he called to confirm his return flight and got something like, “I’m sorry the number you reached is not in business at this time.” His story of how he scrambled his way back to San Francisco was pretty funny. We had flown Pan Am the summer before to Europe and it was so bad that we swore we’d never fly them again. Well we never did! But I miss them. Things like that that are iconic and you grow up with them, it’s just sad when they go away. TWA… That was another experience I had that was really awful. I flew to New York to visit some friends and I was talking about what a horrible flight it was and my friend said, “Well you know what TWA stands for, don’t you? The Worst Airline.”
today, United and American airlines arent any better lol
Can I just say Thank You for posting this gem?! While it is not the best news, it just reminds you of a different time and I feel like we forget our history without looking back sometimes. It doesn't seem like we even really knew that this was truly the ending of a significant era and global company in our lifetime that really made one of the most lasting impacts on our lives.
Very true and well said! I have heard though that Pan Am will come back...
@@MarisaArtLA they have tried. I think COVID-19 has put the kibosh on any airline joining the current fledgling carriers fighting for survival! Honestly, I’d much rather remember them for the everlasting legacy Juan Trippe left us with! Good times!
What left me God snacked was they only needed $25 million to carry on business. Today that would be billions.
That and the width of the news anchor ‘s shoulder pads 😁
@@mananimal3644 🤣hey, presentation is everything!
While my father was doing research in Brazil, he had a friend who worked for the Brazilian arm of Pan Am. One day, out of the blue, his friend told him the company folded and thus he was out of work.
So this video confirms it was like that for the Pan Am passengers, too.
PanAir, the brazilian arm of Pan Am, was folded due to the dictatorship that was ongoing. It was a hyper nationalist regime, so having a foreign company in the mix wasn't to their liking. Sadly, PanAir was forced to go out of business for this ridiculous reason.. Sad stuff
I was an employee of PanAm on that day - showed up at work at the PanAM building and doors were padlocked - i too decided not to accept a job at Delta and was moving from NYC to MIA to work for PanAm LatinAmerica. It wasnt meant to be!
But you can Still say "I worked for Pan American World Airways" Which in my opinion really still means something.
As soon as I started watching the video I thought those employees helping the stranded customers have to be out of a job and clearly working for free. Shows their true character and integrity of the folks working for free. I hope those customers realized that and weren't harsh on them because I feel for them even now 30 years later.
The last flight to go wheels up was PA219 to BGI. The going out of business announcement happened when they were in the air. The station manager in BGI paid for the fuel to return to MIA as PA436, which officially closed the airline.
I was studying at AU in Washington DC and had already booked my ticket with Pan Am to go to Venezuela for Christmas. I hadn't seen my family in almost a year and was desperate to get home. I finally made it home via USAir and a new small Venezuelan carrier named Zuliana.
This really says something about the employees of Pan Am. Pan Am had this really cool jingle called the "The Experience," and part of the lyrics went: "We have cared before, fly with the people who care." Thinking about that and seeing that there were employees that stayed behind to help neglected passengers, even in the bitter end is really something. Mad respect to all the Pan Am employees who were working that day. Y'all went above and beyond to accommodate your passengers.
So sad. My parents and I flew this airline twice during to 1980s to visit India.
Abinash: Pan Am also had a huge presence in India and had hundreds of pretty boys and girls working as flight attendants out of Mumbai ( Bombay at that time)
It flew to Karachi in that route as well
to dhaka? if it still exist we will not fly emirates and fly pan am
@@saamthepuffer4336 Unfortunately, Pan Am went bankrupt in 1991.
2:27 Video router issues are fun
God I love the innocence from employees back then.
If they only knew what was to come!
Kudos for the employees staying to help passengers
This still makes me wanna cry. I'm a child of a Pan Am Family. Dad worked at Kennedy from 1964-1984.
Carlos Granda still works in KABC-7 Los Angeles
I always wondered why Delta didn't rebrand their international ops Pan Am. Much more name recognition in those days than Delta.
Agreed, but that seems to be how companies work for who-knows what reasons. I remember when United merged with Continental and they kept the United name but ditched the tulip logo. Many people, myself included, were baffled by this as the tulip had much better recognition than the Continental globe. Go figure.
Corporate is different: the toys r us failure in us didnt translate to failure elsewhere
The PamAm name came with baggage... the kind that explodes. I don't think anyone wants that name.
Flew Pan Am on my first visit to America from England...I remember a flight attendant on the way back not being so nice. I didn't know the airline was struggling at that time and makes sense why she had an attitude. Sad, was a lovely trip.
2:27 wow, that made me jump out of my skin... geeze.
I never flew pan am but if it’s one thing I do know it’s a revolutionary airline in the U.S everything from people’s stories and how the flight attendants and the staff that worked there were wonderful. I really wish I flew them, but all good things must pass.
Experience...is knowing what to do...we've done it all before...over and over and over......Fly with the people who know! You can't beat the experience...PAN AM!!!!!
and just as the reporter was tryin to tell you how to get your money back, there were statics that interrupted him up until the very second before the video ended; go figure!
🤣🤣😂😂
Not a problem. If you didn't pay your CC bill, you dispute the bill when it shows up.
If you paid it, gripe til you get a refund.
I still have a panam ticket of that particular day!
Tragic day. I was in LAXIUPA that day.
Gosh i feel so nostalgic watching videos from late 80s and early 90's
Time flys, life is short welcome to your vacation on earth, are you enjoying yourself? 👽
I was there originally from JFK maintenance last day in Miami Dec 4th 1992
Benny, any chance you knew a Bruce Thompson? Your name sounds familiar!
I miss Pan Am, they were a first class airline.
I miss the 90s
I was just a kid but me too! :)
Missing the 90s were good at all. However, I would like to relived the late 1990s.
I’m a 90s kid and I wish to relive the year 1994 again.
80s were better, tho. 90s was 80s, bit more sucky.
Both were good but 90's was better to teenager
I was lucky enough to fly back to Boston in November 1991 with Pan Am from San Juan-the news of their closure was heartbreaking to me
Use to fly PAN AM to Hawaii and Back in the 80’s, loved them.
They were several major crash events that put these airlines out of business. It is truly heartbreaking from a customer's standpoint! Less competition always results in higher fares.
It was bad decisions made during the 1973 recession. Yes the Lockerbie terrorist attack was the mail in the coffin.
I remember when the Pan Am building became the MetLife Building. I knew the Pan Am General Counsel. He was devastated.
so in short, Delta airlines screwed Pan Am's last chance by backing out.
Delta needed to save money
My grandmother was stewardess on Pan am
So wonderful! Maybe you could film or write a story about her?
@@MarisaArtLA she worked with Pan am from 1960 to 1980
Who here loves the 720p60 resolution for this old footage?
I did not know that PAN AM airlines were being shut down for business since I was born in the year 1998. I mean, those airplane passengers shall fly with any travel airline like American Airlines.
Diana Williams has been on TV longer than I've been alive.
Worst experience was being handed parachutes and told,to jump out mid flight at 5000,feet.
They parked my plane at 36,000 feet until the bankruptcy was final. I was stuck in the clouds for a year and a half.
@@madtrucker0983 🤣😂😅
So much for Pan Am having commercial flights to space stations in 2001, and according to the TV ad in the background, apparently still in 2010.
One of the sadest days in aviation history.
Sad day in Aviation when TWA and Pan Am along with Eastern stopped flying
While I don't recall the exact date or day, Pan Am's shutdown was indeed a sad occasion and in many ways, the end of an era. I flew the airline a number of times with my family as a youth. It was a different time: we dressed for the occasion and were excited about travel. I remember when MetLife took over the Pan Am building and the iconic logo which had been a part of our skyline was forever dimmed.
I love time traveling. Thanks RUclips.
2:27 jesus that scared me so much
No wonder I don’t see Pan Am anymore
Eastern and Pan Am were the titans of the industry quite shocking for the times. Had a friend who worked at Eastern.
What a great airline RIP PANAM.
Yes way better than United Airline
Legendary airline
How very sad. Pan Am, once known as the most classiest of the U.S. Then came my other favorite, Eastern, and then TWA. My 3 faves, As for American, well, they were a tad bit out of synch. Nevertheless, I truly miss them all. I welcomed, with open arms, the L-1011 on Doesn'tEverLeaveThe Airport, but they have improved. I think.
pan am was extremely top heavy , there was even a vp of toilet sears. a planing dept had 3 workers 5 supervisors a manager, a director, and a vp
I remember this,,,. Geez I'm old.
Wow, I wonder what safety and maintenance corners were cut in the last year or so??
Rip my great grandma was in Pan am 747
RIP to those planes flying when this happened 😭
The planes went back to the bank (mortgage holders). They were repossessed and sold or leased elsewhere.
@@smikey5304 Nah the pilots jumped out with parachutes and the planes crashed. "Welp, not my job anymore!"
We flew on PamAm in 1968, was really nice. Gave us bags and toiletry kits.
Thanks for 60p, but the deinterlacer struggles on thin horizontal lines. For QTGMC you may try _border=true_ setting. Also, why it this in a wide frame to begin with? Should have been 960x720 @ 60p.
How did they just end a flight immediate though?? That sounds ludicrous, if the plane is already fueled, don't strand the paying passengers!
There are all sorts of commercial considerations on the receiver's/ liquidator's mind when 'closing' an airline. One consideration is trying to avoid aircraft being stranded at 'hostile' airports (eg where someone could put a lien on the aircraft). Hence boarded flights will be stopped from taking off and flights in the air turned around especially if they have not reached mid point. When Laker Airlines went bust the I seem to remember that the USA bound flight was turned around in mid air so Laker did not have a plane stranded at JFK.
This was a sad day. Pan Am was always my go-to airline for European and Asian destinations. We were once on a Quantas flight, approaching the runway, only to taxi back to our gate because of a mechanical issue. We spent 6 hours waiting for our plane to be ready. Still, I've never had an airline go out of business while boarded! How awful and complicated for these people.
Why did the closure have to be so abrupt? Strange
Airlines can't give warnings they are going to shut down in advance. The moment they announce they will stop flying in, say, two weeks they can't sell a single ticket and every previously ticketed passenger flying beyond the shutdown date demands a refund.
With all their cash gone within hours the airline can't keep their promise to continue operating until the announced "last day" because the warning itself financially accelerates their demise.
2:27 Whoa Bevis, that was cool.
A very, very sad day for commercial aviation. TW ceased operating on 1 December, 2001 -- 3-days short of 2-years later.
Did the talented and brilliant Enrique Ripley end up flying the Pan Am plane?
The end of an era😢
Wow.
Why is the anchor so bubbly and happy
Pan Am just bled money; they just couldn't stop much less slow the expenses.
guy left pan am said is was the best airline and say if they go back in service they will go back
The only way to get a refund is to what?
He said ‘The only way to get your money back is to *BZZZT!*, and wait for a refund.’ 😂
Seriously, I believe he said “mail it in” meaning, mailing it into Delta, and waiting for a refund. Makes sense, since they were honoring Pan Am tickets.
@@mcorivervsaf Ok
My uncle was stranded in Hawaii for almost 3 weeks.
Well, if you're stranded, that's not the worst of places...
Horrible. Lol
Pan Am was appeared on 2001: Space Odyssey (1968 Sci-Fi Movie By Stanley Kubrick).
That’s Why Children Says To Me “Is Pan Am exist Yet?”
Me: No (defunct).
Airlines in suspected financial trouble can be grounded very quick. It just takes the jet fuel supplier to refuse to fill up a plane if they feel they won't get paid for it. This is possibly what happened to the flight that was all ready to go but didn't -- no fuel.
Or the pilot’s got that relieved from duty effective immediately message and said fk this
It’s many many years ago with Pan Am to serve as a biggest airline of the world. Very 😔
Come fly with me…let’s all fly away!
I'm ready. Let's do it. Lol. Buy a huge plot of land unincorporated. Lol. Tiny trailer house (hand made) or something you can move when 8 feet of snow in winter comes. Lol
I feel bad for those PAN AM people. I think Lockerbie was the final nail.
No fascism!! 🚫🇺🇦❌
No imperialism!! 🚫🇬🇧❌
No, Orion Space Clipper flights?
Reminds me of what happened with WowAir thing!
Trying to navigate all of this as a passenger without the instant updates available on a smartphone sounds like a total nightmare. How did we live without our hi-tech devices back then??
And then the same company that bought Boston & Maine railroad, bought whatever was left of Pan Am and changed the name of the railroad to Pam Am Railways. But just recently, CSX bought the whole thing. A weird way for the Pan Am name to end.
Omg look at Diana 🥰
Worked for united airlines for 2 years and PANAM is like the legend
1:37 feel so sorry for this guy 😢and they all kept on working to help passengers even though they’d just been let go. With a work ethic like that I’m sure he found his new career quickly 👍🏻
I've been living at the terminal for 31 years now, it's just a temporary glitch.
I wonder what happened to the flights that were in the air when that happened
Pan Am is my favorite airline and gold standard. Pan Am will be back. It has the coolest logo and name. It has the coolest colors and livery . It is ahead of it’s time. Pan Am will acquire Delta, American, and United and get rid of the Covid era executives.
2:28 Surprise!
Miss you!
Thank God my parents were already midair when it happened and when they landed the company was no more! 😂
Being on top today is no promise of even existing a year or so from now. Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Google-all of you guys need to take note.
Look at the Rockefellers. Oldsmobile. Buick. Packard (huge building abandoned in mid 50s, shown in "It Follows"). Detroit...