Flying high: Remembering Pan Am
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- Опубликовано: 23 янв 2016
- It was an aviation pioneer, and became a symbol of America during the Golden Age of air travel. But while Pan Am no longer flies the friendly skies, many of the women who proudly wore the Pan Am uniform talked with Conor Knighton about the glory days - when flying was glamorous, complete with gourmet food on board.
I worked for Pan Am at LAX, as an avionics tech. My job was interesting but not glamorous, working through the night maintaining 747s. I recall when flight 103 was bombed. Our crew worked on that 747 two nights before it was lost. It was sad and upsetting to think about the loss of the flight crew and passengers. The FBI sent two agents to LAX to interview each of us individually. I also remember when Pan Am shut down. I was on vacation at the time, and I found out about it on tv news. A couple of days later I arrived at LAX, terminal 2 to pick up my tools. The place looked like a ghost-town. But mostly I have great memories of my co-workers and of Pan Am. One of the best jobs I ever had.
My co-worker's sister worked for KLM for reservations/groups at LAX. It was great because with family tickets they could fly back to England every year. Then her sister decided to to move back to England. She worked Pan Am and ended up going to help at Lockerbie after it happened. It was devastating for everyone involved. Elaine relayed the stories of her sister at wreckage and helping the family members. Heartbreaking.
I believe it's such a shame the historic Pan Am Worldport at JFK International Airport was demolished. One of my greatest wishes would be for it is to be reconstructed, rebuilt and named the Pan Am Hotel. That would be really wondrous.
While I would agree that it would be a great idea, I will have to say that where it used to be may not be the only place where it could exist. One place that is also equally important to aviation is Colorado Springs, because it is home to the United States Air Force Academy. A hotel modeled after the Pan Am Worldport would be perfect in Colorado Springs, since much of its urban layout is largely suburban anyways. A second Pan Am museum could also be established in Colorado Springs, with retired airplanes restored into Pan Am liveries as exhibits. One of the airplanes-turned-museum-pieces could even be converted into a full-scale restaurant, galley and all. It would be awesome if there were American aviation museums that had the space and groups of volunteers who could restore and maintain old commercial airplanes for the public to experience, while also improving them so they are more environmentally-friendly. It would be like a scenic tourist railroad, but with airplanes instead of trains.
My dad was a captain and he found my mom on pan am and I am a captain for American Airlines and I found my wife on American Airlines ha just like my old man
This is by Lon don
And your son will be a captin for Delta and will find his wife on Delta xD
British Airways why is your name BA then? Lol
That’s beautiful
Then y ur name BA instead of the airline you work for. Like I get it my name ant United airline just because I have been with United mechanics numerous times with my grand father when he still worked for United
The Pan Am ladies are a wonderful group of cool history! Wonderful to see them still rocking those beautiful uniforms for the occasions!
We want Pan Am back please....You will have our support. Car crashes kills more people. People should not have stopped flying Pan Am. You were the best airline....an Icon of the United States of America...come back Pan Am......
I was an employee of another airline all those years ago, from 1969 to 1979. As part of our amazing and wonderful travel benefits(trust me, they were even better than you might imagine), I flew on Pan Am several times, mostly in first class because that's how it was back then. Yes, we usually flew first class, but we were required to be discrete about it, and we were always obligated to make sure the cabin crew knew we were airline employees flying for free, otherwise known as "non-revs", meaning non-revenue passengers. Hope that makes sense. As a non-rev we were supposed to be at the bottom of the pecking order for meals, but I must say that we were always taken care of. Airline employees look after their own. More to the point, Pan Am was an amazing airline, and it's a crime that it no longer exists. Oh, and if there are any former flight attendants reading this, what was the champagne you served back in the 1970s? I remember it as being very dry and crisp and I liked it a lot. I would love to know what I was drinking back then.
That champagne brand went down with Pan Am.
Please tell us more about the travel benefits you had with Pan Am back then .
I never had the opportunity to fly on PanAm as an Eastern Airlines employee but sure wish I had. The airline benefits were amazing and other airlines offered employee discounts to other employees in the industry. Those really were the days! The meals were amazing especially when flying international. Passengers dressed up and there was an air of glamour to the whole experience. And if you were female, that uniform captured a gentleman’s attention✈️✈️✈️Yes… those were the good old days, now vivid memories ❤
I flew on pan am once
My grandmother was a Pan am stewardess flight route:fes to New York. A little girl from rual Morocco became a pan am stewardess in 1948 speaking Arabic, French, English, Italian
Too bad she’s not here anymore
Those really were the days…. I flew for eastern airline as a flight attendant and remember the many times standing alongside Pan Am flight attendants going through Miami customs. I loved their uniforms and that matching hat. Within a couple of years TWA, PAn AM & EASTERN all closed😢I wonder how many of us still look at these RUclips videos and reminisce❤
Pan Am makes the going great! My bf worked for Pan Am he introduced me to wonderful people.
2:51
Can you imagine what those folks were thinking? "Gee, this is the life! I wonder how great air travel will be in 50 years?"
And now look at us
I know right! If I had billions I would move to the states and Re-Open Pan Am..........
great in 1st class
@@benbielenberg853 Agreed! I would like to know what it was like to fly during my parent's generation. Train travel here is not what it once was either.
But... today, more people can afford to fly. If you want the first class experience, you can still get it, for the price EVERYONE use to pay for air travel, with no lower priced options.
Forever in our hearts...Thank you for the wonderful memories...
I'm a retiree (flight attendant) of old Continental Airlines from the 1960's and '70's. I was based in Los Angeles, our HQ back then. On my days off, I usually chose Pan American for my non-rev travel to Asia and Europe for vacation. Pan Am's service was superb and I was treated royally, as airlines would try to do with employees of other air carriers. We may have worked for different airlines, but we were all one big family. I loved and miss Pan American World Airways!
In 1976 I went to Iran. I was an airline employee for an airline that no longer exists, alas. In Iran I stayed in the hotel the Pan Am crews stayed in, and wound up making friends with them. I went to the market and bargained for souvenirs. The next day I guided a new Pan Am crew to the bazaar. Pan Am was absolutely the best.
my mom always flew on Pan Am to visit her family. those beautiful 747's, such graceful birds,
My mother was a stewardess for Pan Am in th 40s. These women were perfect in apparance and comportment. How things have changed.
My Aunt (now passed) was a "stewardess" in the 1960s and 1970s for Pan Am (her surname was Steward), but she would bring me this blue vinyl luggage and all kinds of other things from her job with the Pan Am logo on it. Kinda makes me emotional. She was based in SFO and flew the SFO --> Honolulu --> Manila --> Shanghai --> Hong Kong --> Sydney route (but I also think they flew to Tokyo, Seoul, and Singapore and possibly Los Angeles as well). Juan Trippe was the person who commissioned Boeing to build the 747. Back in those days it was PanAm, TWA, United, and American, who were the big carriers.
1:06 Is she your aunt???
My cousin Lucy Bernier Karaganda flew for Pan Am 60-70’s. She was from Montreal. My dad married Lucy’s Aunt. She was a great Gal. Delta took over PA and I loved working with the crews.
Kerrigan Lucy
I wish TV is still like this I miss this show!,
this about the real airline not the tv show.
Great video. Would loved to have flown in those days. Thanks for uploading.
It was the times of times never will we forget beautiful American Pan Am was absolutely The best now Emirates are all the other worlds airline have an example to look up too
So TRUE whether you started flying when Bette did or when I started my WONDERFUL CAREER in 1985 with Eastern...WONDERFUL EXPERIENCES..a wedding in Bangkok or getting together with friends in Hong Kong for shopping you can NEVER trade those memories..thank you God for the wonderful gift of being a flight attendant 🥰
What a great airline. Used to fly back and forth from Europe to USA from the 1965-1990. Deregulation killed the company.
What once was hospitality seems to have changed to hostility🛬🛬🛬🛬🛬☠
GROOVY. JOJO
Thank the Muslims
Well remember that flying in the 70s was as expensive as first class today. And today first class is a lot better than what they had back than.
Pan American World Airways. The name says it all. No other airline ever came close, nor will any in the future.
RJ Mac I could not agree with you more and I had the Good Fortune to fly on about 350 Pan Am flights
RJ Mac TWA DI'd for sure
today's Emirates, Etihad and some Asian airline can compete it in some aspect, but surely not anymore from US and pretty much all western countries, as United as the neg example.
Emirates and Singapore Airlines would be the Pan AM's of today..!
RJ Mac TWA was a great Airline TOO !!
Jet sophistication and, not to forget, sheer elegance!
Something what seems to be forgotten or sometimes even forbidden!
Pity, the times of people wanting and longing to be elegantly dressed are long and widely gone 😒!
Pan am reminds me of a brave Indian stewardess who sacrificed her life saving so many lives when pan am was hijacked 1986 brave Neerja Bhanot 💐
I was living in Miami when both Pan Am and Eastern died, Flagler Blvd was a very sad place then, so saaaaaaad!
Flying back then is lot better than flying today.
Yeah, but flying in the 80s was super expensive compared to today
Can someone PLEASE resurrect PAN AM!
It was tried on two occasions and it was a failure. It's a different world now. Passengers are so cost-conscious that they're not willing to pay double or triple the fares to have the 1960s level service. A coach ticket purchased in the '60s, when adjusted for inflation, would be at least $2,000 in current dollars.
I got you!...in about 20 years
My earliest memory as a child was flying from Hong Kong to San Francisco aboard Pan Am in 1969. I was two, and my family was moving to the U.S. to be with my grandparents. When we landed in San Francisco, the stewardess gave me a travel bottle of Coca-Cola to welcome me to America. These two American commercial icons - Pan Am and Coca-Cola - have since been etched in my memory. I don't have the little glass bottle, but I still have my Pan Am wings and my Pan Am bag. Oh, and, yes, also still have a thing for flight attendants.
Oh yeah? Check this one out. The only time I ever flew a Pan Am flight was back home to San Francisco from Honolulu in the mid-1970s. I was about 4 or 5 years old at the time. I was travelling with my brother and our parents.
Beautiful memories.
I worked in Aircraft Maintenance from Mechanic Helper to Air
Craft Maintenance Supervisor.Met a lot of nice guys had a good time in my jobs.Herman Minkin JFK.ORD.Augusta,LAX
I remember :) you can have some of my nice memories of loving planes & being in them
Sad to see Pan Am go☹️😔
My dad told me when he used to travel Panam, TWA and Alitalia (when it was good) and telling me how different it used to be. The food was cooked fresh, the service was amazing and flying was like taking a cruise. Nothing to do with today's horrible airlines like American or Ryanair.
Back in the day American was lovely to fly on, my mom was a stewardess for them in 1960, another world entirely from the cattle car treatment of today ....
Thank you Pan Am and Staff for flying me from Casablanca, Morocco to JFK when I migrated in 1984.
My first flight was on a PAN AM.Never forget. Was so proud.
Los recuerdos que tengo de PAN AMERICAN son especiales recuerdo cómo si fuera hoy el viaje que hice con mis padres desde Caracas a N.Y. en él año 1976 recuerdo era un B 707 recuerdo cuando llegábamos al aeropuerto J.F K. nunca podré olvidar tan gran aerolínea cómo fue PAN AM al ver estos videos revivo tan gratos momentos.
Here's a though. Raise (double) the price of the tickets, make it all economy premium, have a dress code, bring back the food and drinks.
nice report... my grandfather was captain by PAN AM,he was my HERO!!
Airlines were luxurious and the planes were too. Now the new boeings, and airbus arent the same. I miss the old planes.
Those seats are huuuuuuuuge
When flying was nice.
I flew on Pan Am when I was six, back in 1982. My dad was stationed at Subic Bay in the Philippines. He was transferred back to the States so we flew from Manilla to California. I have some memories of the flight, but unfortunately they have largely faded.
Hey, I was there too....we always ended up on Space-A.
@@mitchyoung93 That's cool. I went to Kalayaan Elementary School for kindergarten.
BRING BACK PAN AM PLEASE WHY DO YOU LEAVE US WITH UNITED
MinionStudios They can’t just bring back a airline that is gone.
UNTIED
Might be late but pan am bankrupt and lost billions of dollars, plus they can't recover from flight 103 and flight 1736
Are you willing to pay an arm an a leg for the cheapest ticket?
STFU ReRe Bru United better than goody 2 shoes pan AM
Still don't understand why people didn't fly Pan Am after the crash, death by cars are much much higher, should we all stop buying cars?
Probably sensationalism news stories.
Pan Am troubles started as back as the late 60's, they had issues filling 707 planes in many routes, when they bought the 747's it compounded the problem, which started to become evident to the public in the 70's
As a result the public and industry in general had been exposed to the airline's issues for many, many years, travel agencies were warning potential customers that it they flew in Pan Am the company may go under any minute and leave them stranded, which had happened to other airlines like Eastern, Braniff and eventually Pan Am in 1991.
@@thomasjust2663 I think what you're typing here is utter BS. As an employee of Pan Am and whose father was an executive at Pan American, I can tell you that the problems did not lie where you are reporting, it's just complete bunk. Yes managerial and logistical problems with Pan American Airways started to occur in the 70s and much more so after the merger of National Airlines, but flight safety and ridiculous propaganda such as leaving passengers stranded is just pure conjecture on your part.
Because in the past airlines did their own security. In the crash PanAm security was found to be at fault.
Wow she mentioned flying to Manila back then. Mabuhay! I'm so excited to travel as a future male Filipino flight attendant.
Pan Am was the first airline my mom took from Korea to Honolulu, Hawaii and tested A+ for her American citizenship which a lady judge with blond hair passed her with flying colors and remarking how much she had studied, plus adding that if she studied more, she too could be a judge. The pride of Pan Am airlines will be forever, as we took our next flight from Korea to San-Francisco after my American dad passed away in Korea. Pan Am the Great!
Praise to Jesus who sticks closer than a brother! God bless you all. And hi Stuart, love your fellowship! Look for you every day, except Wednesday when you are busy with Bible study! God Bless.
Wow Manila! Nakapunta si lola dito mabuhay 🇵🇭
Pan Am and Juan Trippe - the best!
RIP Pan Am, Juan Trippe, and Glory days of air travel.
Think so? Juan Trippe alienated every single politician who could help the company when it desperately needed help in the 70's, he also bought many 747's he could not fill with passengers, many say this is when the real problems started for Pan Am
@@thomasjust2663 So Juan Trippe was supposed to predict the Arab oil embargo?
PanAm 747. My all time favorite plane!
the most amazing airline in the world
"Pan Am makes the going great."
awesome video and story!
I believe the beginning of the end for Pan Am was long before Lockerbie. I believe the downward spiral happened as soon as Juan Trippe was out of the picture. One thing not touched on in this video was that PA was strictly an international airline. They did not have any domestic feeder flights until the early '80s when they purchased National(unlike TWA which did both domestic and international). And, just about any business that goes under does so because of BAD MANAGEMENT. It's certainly not the fault of the rank-and-file employes. Pan Am management failed to adapt to the oil crisis of the early '70s and deregulation of 1978. They're the ones at fault. Not these great employes.
Well said.
R.I.P PAN AM
I worked on that plane in hanger for 3 months Major overhaul every nut bolt and wiring was changed rip to all now. I'm 88 now.
well i love this💝 story
I would love to see Pan Am
If I had money I would bring PanAm back
I wish they would still do that now
Pan Am is like the Emirates/Qatar Airways of the 20th Century Glory Days of the past!
Big difference is PanAm was self sustained, not owned and supported by each individual government of the Middle East airlines you mention. I would not fly any of those airlines if they paid me!
Hi from Switzerland. THE national company Swissair was grounded and now it's Swiss operating under Lufthansa wings. In your video, I melt in front of the FA's. Thank you on both sides.
love me some PA and 707
Those were the days of flying around the world. Now you go to the other side of the world and it’s not a lot different to back home.
These were the absolute best times for the flying industry and for being a passenger. Now we have to endure all kinds of hideous monstrosities serving as flight attendants and an abysmal quality of service and experience . I'm still in disbelief at how much our standards have dropped as a society.
These ladies exude CLASS! How humanity has devolved into this 🤡 car we have today! Love to see some of these woman fly again. If only as temps. Put some class back into society!
Today is like moving cattle around.
Moving lesbians around.
I recently retired I was a flight attendant for pan am in 1987 until they closed down in December 4 1991 then I immediately was hired by American Airlines and I just retired after 33 years
there were scheduled air services across the Atlantic by German DELAG air ship company, prior to Pan Am
The images of the Lockerbie cockpit were so sad. I'm glad they took the remains of the pilots out before showing them, but still, I can imagine the pilots being there. They just show the glass panes, but I imagine the people.
2:26 i wish i could be that little girl, the dress, the gloves-- i love it! i want to wear that outfit! Including the gloves.
I wear hats, gloves and dresses. You can still dress like that if you choose to do.
You mentioned the gloves twice...
Great video!
The flight that create God's love 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️❤️not just speech and hoax
I'm not crying... you are 😭😭😭
I remember very little Panam. During 80's wasn't as glamorous as it used to be. During 90's Panam and TWA were dinosaurs under extinction. Panam was bought by Delta airlines and TWA by American Airlines.
Such a sad ending for the pioneers.. Pan Am!
from first class with beautiful women who had to be single bringing you Lobster Thermidor & fine French Champagne to the contrast of today.
we are bus riders in the sky bus riders in the sky that must comply.
take off your shoes don't look at the official sideways or they will put you in a fish tank and look at your junk... LOL
the jet set baby!
wow!! look at the leg room between those seats...a stark contrast to today.
You want extra legroom? Fork up the extra money for a business or first class seat. Problem solved. You get what you pay for.
Half these women still work for Delta, the other half for United.
It's tragic that both Pan Am and TWA are gone, the companies that started the passenger flights, I think all of us though they would last forever.
Just luv the old times
Loved Pan Am, but sad to say it started to go downhill in the seventies...
The journalist loves showing himself on camera.
"The DOWNING of flight 103...." Why don´t you tell his how it came down, CBS?
Most people know why.
I still call them air stewardesses.
Even the men.
That's rude. There are men in flight attendant positions than ever before.
@@frednotgeorge Oh no! How terrible! Somebody call the police!
@@PersimmonHurmo change as the world changes with you.
Stuart Lee The male form is steward.
My mom came to America on Pan AM
It’s make me smile :)
That old lady gave it up to all the pilots!
Sweet...
I remember the United "stewardess" having Mu-Mu style uniforms. They really got into it
One day i will start panam airline.
Can anyone tell me to what extent is united 921 18:00 dep from LHR to Newark the modern day sucessor to PA103?
The explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland drove the final nail in Pan Am’s coffin.
They wear the uniforms for the reunion
Took me from Honolulu to Salt Lake City to attend college
Anyone know any airport announcements in 1982 Pan Am?
I was always surprised at how quickly Pan Am went under. Most companies hobble along for quit a while.....to a slow death. This was abrupt.
Stewardess: Would you like some more coffee, sir?
Passenger: No, thank you.
Stewardess: Well, what's the matter, such big, big tears?
THE ABC SHOW ON PAN AM IS A GREAT SHOW!!! CHECK IT OUT ON TUBI. !!!!