SPEAKER_02 0:16

Welcome to the very first episode of the Pan Am Podcast, brought to you by the Pan Am Museum in Garden City, New York. This podcast and our museum are dedicated to celebrating the legacy of the world's most iconic airline, Pan American World Airways. If you're not familiar with Pan Am, welcome. We are honored to have you here and for you to learn about what we're all about. If you already know of Pan Am, worked for, or flown on the airline, or just love our history, it's good to be with you again. So with that, let's get this episode in the air, so to speak. Welcome aboard your Pan American jet clipper. All the music we use on this and future podcasts are from the Pan Am commercials. In fact, the disco intro theme you just heard is the famous you can't beat the experience theme, composed by Steve Carmen, who was known in the advertising industry as the king of the jingle. Pan Am was always recognized with quality excellence and its obsession with providing the best customer experience possible. From fine French foods to plush comfortable seats, Pan Am brought class and luxury to air travel and set the industry standard for decades. The company focused on every detail of the brand. Here's a great example. Another version of that song you heard a bit ago became the signature theme for the company and was used as the boarding and deplane music on all Pan Am wide-body aircraft throughout the 1980s, up until closing in December of 1991. We'll explore Panam music and advertising campaigns on a future episode. The Pan Am Museum Foundation is a nonprofit organization. Our mission statement is to educate, celebrate, and inspire present and future generations by preserving historical and diverse personal stories of Pan American World Airways. Please visit our website for more information at the Panamuseum.org. Again, our website is the Panamuseum.org. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram. We would love to meet you when you visit our museum on Long Island, which is just a short distance away from New York City. Every episode of the Pan Am podcast will be divided into two parts. In the first part, we will explore Panam's fascinating and unique history. We're excited to share some fun and very interesting stories with you. The second part will feature an insightful interview. Sometimes our guests will be a Pan Am employee, family member, or Pan Am passenger, all sharing their unique stories. We will divide the podcast with an audio cue. When you hear this sound, it means that the second part of the podcast will begin. So we're happy to be joined by the museum's board chair, co-founder, and museum director, Linda Frere. Welcome to the Pan Am Podcast, Linda.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

Thank you, Tom. So happy to be here, and uh thank you for hosting the Pan Am Podcast, what we believe might be the first podcast uh with a subject of Pan Am ever known. So we're real happy to be starting uh hopefully what will be a series of podcasts related to um the iconic airline that I love.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

The museum opened to the public in 2016 on Long Island. Tell us a little bit about how it got started.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Sure. Well, uh a group of us back in 2015 were asked to uh get a picture of a plaque that resides on the harbor in Port Washington, Long Island, New York. We were contacted by one of our colleagues who resides in Paris, a gentleman by the name of Bruce Gately, and Bruce was a Pan Am flight attendant as well. He was contacted by the French government asking him to get a copy of this plaque so they could commemorate the 75th anniversary of the first transatlantic crossing of a commercial airliner. And of course, that was Pan Am. So a group of us went down to Port Washington on the harbor, and we are looking at this plaque, which kind of was a little bit of an emotional moment for us, knowing that our airline did not exist anymore, but that there was such historic significance. This was uh the summer of 2015. I'm gonna say probably July 2015. And just organically and kind of out of nowhere, he said, why isn't there a Panair Museum? The group of us, it was Andrea Sider, Kathy Fong, and Julie Watson, who was then the president of the World Wings International. And we just kind of looked at each other and we took a moment and said, there should be, there should be a museum. And the takeaway from that gathering was we need to do something about this. There has to be a museum. We set about the task of researching what we needed to do. We knew we wanted to have a non-for-profit registered 501c3. Andrea Sider took the lead on that, uh, did her research, uh, given her experience and background uh skill set as a paralegal. We met with a renowned CPA expert on 501c3 filings, a gentleman by the name of Garrett Higgins. And he he really gave us an overview on what we needed to do. Uh, Andrea really set about the task of researching the paperwork, starting the paperwork. We we did some of the uh effort of completing it together, and then she filed it and we waited to see if we were accepted, and lo and behold, a few months later, uh we were um accepted as a registered 501c3, and of course they backdated it to August to the date of the filing, and the Paint and Museum Foundation was born.

SPEAKER_02 6:56

It's pretty remarkable. So uh December 4th of this year will be the 30th anniversary of the closing of the airline, and many of your former colleagues, you know, lost their pensions um when the airline went went uh bankrupt and ceased operations. However, there's this camaraderie that is incredible. Can you speak to that?

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Well, it kind of defies explanation because I don't know that there's any other company that has been out of business for 30 years that still has a fan base, if you will, and a very extremely dedicated, loyal following of its employees. Uh, Pentium is unique in that way, but Panium was unique in so many ways. Uh it it was a family uh from the beginning. You really joined this company that had been in existence for decades, you know, when I joined them, and it was uh a feeling that this you were a part of something special. And I don't know if it was instinctive in the hiring, but they they hired Pan Am hired people who just wanted to be there to uh put the put the airline, put the company, put their what they were doing, their business, whether it be maintenance, whether it be ramp services, whether it be passenger services, in-flight services, or flying the plane, no matter what your role, driving the crew bus to the um to bring the employees to the airport, whatever it was, you wanted to ensure that you did the best that you could. And that was it's it was like in the DNA of everybody. Um and I think reading a book lately that was written by Charlie Ambriani, which is called Missions of Mercy and Evacuation Flights, you get a sense of what Pan Am was from the beginning, from 1927, from its origins, that it was a company that was comprised of individuals who were going to make a difference, whether it was in the lives of an of a traveler or within the lives of a person who needed help and assistance. Pan Am was there. And I think that was the bond that held us together, and that's what made it so special.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

We'll get to your your story in a moment, but let's go back to the museum.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Uh so tell us about where the museum stands today and uh your vision of what will it be about in the future.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Well, it's hard to believe that in 2015 we had just gotten our 501c3 status, and in 2016, um we rented space in an existing aviation museum on Long Island called the Cradle of Aviation Museum. And uh we've been there now five years and very happy to be there. We have built several exhibits, all dedicated and centered around a theme of an airplane and an era. And Pan Am was very loyal to Boeing manufacturing for many years. Uh, and until probably the 80s, they relied pretty much exclusively on Boeing aircraft and McDonnell Douglas as well. I mean, there were other aircraft in the airline's fleet, you know, including um Lockheed and including uh the Constellation and some other very famous aircraft that were known in aviation history, but they had an extreme loyalty, and I think that was because a bond, special bond that existed between Wantripp and Bill Allen of Boeing, of the Boeing Corporation. The um that bond was a friendship, and so deals were made with a handshake. There wasn't a bunch of lawyers involved at the time, it was a handshake and a request to build a certain type of aircraft according to the specifications that Juan Tripp envisions. So here we are now six years, five years back behind past the date where we file for our um 501c3, and we have exhibits that tell the story of the early days of Pan Am on the B-314 and the China Clipper aircrafts, where Pan Am not only started flying commercial aviation routes, developing those routes, along with a gentleman that many people know, Charles Lindbergh. I'm not sure if a lot of people know that Charles Lindbergh actually worked for Pan Am, was a consultant for many years, and charted the routes, the international routes that are still used today for commercial aviation. They built this airline then, and with Juan Tripp's vision, they crossed the Atlantic, they crossed the Pacific, and started something that was very special. We tell that story in the B-314 exhibit. We then move on to the next era, which was the luxury liner of aircraft, which is depicted in our exhibits as the Stratocruiser or the B-377 aircraft. That was a double-decker aircraft. It was really an age of um lifting or raising the bar on the level of service provided on board.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

And what time frame are we talking? 1950s?

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Yeah, the Stratocruiser was was uh entered into service about 1949, just after uh shortly a few years after World War II, because the aircraft was a derivative of a military aircraft that was used during the war. But now, after the war, and many thanks to Pan Am, there were airports. So you didn't have to use the flying boats to land on bodies of water. So now during the war and with the assistance of Pan Am, a lot of the airports were um built during the war and available now so that land-based aircraft could fly into cities like Paris and Rome and London proper, as opposed to going into uh a seaport that would be close to them or close to those cities. So from 1949 to probably 1958 uh was the age of the luxury liner or the other Stratocruiser. Uh, it was also the time when there was an introduction of Maximes as the uh caterer on board the aircraft. And it it's it sounds a little funny to say caterer, but Maximes developed the menus that's the famous restaurant in Paris. That is the famous restaurant in Paris. And on some of the early flights, on some of the early flights that were designated presidential flights, destinations like London and Paris, there was this elevated presidential service on board, and the China was specially imprinted with a presidential seal. And the menu was indicative and reflective of a five-star restaurant, either in New York or Paris. And on some of these early flights, the um a chef from Maxime's would be on board assisting in the preparation and delivery of and presentation, I guess I should say, of the meals. So it was a incredible. Yeah, it was a special, special event. It was a special time. Flying was about elegance and sophistication, and um it had a whole different appeal or a whole different um uh feeling, I guess, than flying today.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

So, what would you like to tell people that may have never had an opportunity to fly on Pantium? For instance, people under 30 would never have had an opportunity to fly on Pantium because the airline ceased operations in 1991.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Well, of course, my first thing is come to see the museum, come visit the exhibits. Um right after the Stratocruiser was we have we built the uh 707 exhibit. Now, this is a time of amazing excitement, and I think a person who comes to visit the museum will get a sense of the uh fun and the uh growth of Pan Am and its pivotal position, not only in um commercial aviation, but in the world and how it affected uh world history. You'll learn a lot, you'll get a taste, I guess I should say, in the exhibits that we've built, from the B-314 to the Stratocruzers to the 707 to the Jumbo Jet era and the 747. You'll get a good understanding of just how essential Pan Am was to the evolution of commercial aviation in this country, but also indelibly woven into the very fabric and history of the United States in the 20th century.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

So let's talk a little bit about your personal history. So when did you become a part of Pan Am?

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Well, I hired in 1979, but I actually started my training in 1980. At the time Pan Am was going through when I was hired, there was a pending acquisition of what be what was National Airlines, or the merger occurred in 1980. So my training class happened, occurred in April. I was official hire date was April 2nd of 1980. There's a one-month training and six months of probation where you have your silver wings. And then if you successfully complete your probationary period, then you're giving your gold wings. And that is a very exciting opportunity when you get your gold wings pinned on you, and you know that you've you've made it. You're part of the girl, you're part of the official Pan Am uh flight attendant uh capacity right now. And and it was it was special. I remember getting my gold wings and being very thrilled. And I think later on in my career, I also went into management and I was actually assistant base director for Pan Am in New York. And it gave me just as much a thrill when I was in a position to pin gold wings on the new higher flight attendants who had successfully completed their probationary period. So it's it's kind of um, you know, it's kind of a feeling of acceptance, and um, and you made the grade. And it was pretty, pretty significant to make the grade as a pan-am flight attendant. So that was very special.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

Take us through um, you know, an average flight for you um as a flight attendant.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Well, uh as a new higher flight attendant, as a junior flight attendant, um, you're kind of uh everything is done by seniority. So you really have to bid for trips. And um you also did standby, I think it was quarterly. It was ever every four months, every three months you were on standby, which means you had 90 minutes for wherever you live to get to the airport once they called you, which living in Manhattan could be an interesting experience of getting to the airport in 90 minutes given the traffic. Um, but but we did it. Yeah, we we had fun. We we did it. And I have some interesting tales of some of those events. But um so you you report to your um flight if you have a flight that is not from standby, if you had what was called a flight that was on your line, if you were able to hold a line flying a trip. You report 90 minutes before your scheduled departure, and you had a briefing. And the briefing was with the rest of the crew. The the captain would usually come in, give, you know, say hi to everybody, kind of give them any other kind of little details that might be pertinent. Um, in-flight supervisor, the operations control supervisor would come in, give maybe a little bit of a details if there was anything significant on the flight, as far as maybe passengers or celebrities, dignitaries, any special information. In fact, there was what was called a SIL SIL special information log that the purser or the person who was in charge of the flight attempts on board the aircraft would review with the crew so that we had awareness of anything that we should be particularly attentive to on the flight. After the briefing, you would probably go to the aircraft about an hour prior to departure. You'd board the aircraft, check your equipment, stow your luggage, and then get the cabin ready for um for boarding. Um and boarding is I think everybody's pretty familiar with the boarding process on an aircraft. And then after takeoff, making sure that um you get everybody's drinks and things ready. You know, we had bar carts in those days, so it was it was a lot easier than when in the days when they had to run out drinks on a tray on a large 747. So we would set up the bar carts and then get the bar carts uh ready to go out and get um offer people something to drink. Of course, the procedure you followed would vary depending on what class of service, what cabin you worked in. If you were in first class, um you're doing a there's no bar cart, this is all personal hand-delivered service. You're taking orders. You're walking around to each seat and you're requesting from that person, uh, whoever that person is, you're asking, you know, you have their name in front of you. And so you make sure that you address that person by name and you ask them what they would like to drink. And of course, you've already handed out the menus in first class with that has an offering of the champagnes and the wines and uh the meals that would be available on that particular flight, going to that particular destination. While in the back, as I said, you're doing the bar cart, and then once you finished offering drinks in the back, then you're getting ready for the meal service. And when I first started flying, there were no meal carts. We did hand carry trays out to uh passengers. So was that difficult?

SPEAKER_02 20:00

Like on a big 747? Well, it you're in the main cabin.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

It could be interesting. Um, you learn how to carry and balance things. It was difficult if there was turbulence, it could be an interesting experience. But uh, and I had a couple of interesting experiences. Um, please tell us. Oh, please. Um, one one was um, it was actually after the meal service, and I was um pouring coffee. And in those days, in the back, we would bring out a pot, a silver pot with coffee in it, hot coffee, and we I had a tray that had sugar and real milk, not a creamer package. We had real milk in a um in a creamer cup cup. So, and I would go around, or whoever was working the coffee service would coffee and tea would walk around the cabin after the trays or were in the process of being picked up in the back and offer coffee or tea to anyone who requested it. So all of a sudden, out of the blue, we hit clear air turbulence, and the plane dropped, probably about I don't know, I'm guessing five, 10,000 feet, enough so that the floor of the aircraft dropped out from underneath me. And I'm kind of I'm kind of suspended. My knees are bent now, and I'm kind of trying to absorb the shock because I know at some point the plane's coming back up, and I'm gonna meet this uh the floor again of the plane. Um, but and it happened very quickly. But as I'm as I'm doing going through this, and in my mind it's surreal and it's almost in slow motion, I'm noticing that the coffee, the liquid, is coming out of the coffee pot in a perfect cylinder. It was almost like gravity controlled it. And it rose up out of the coffee pot in a perfect cylinder and fell back into the pot in a perfect cylinder, and not a drop was spilled.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 21:57

And I'm I'm just I was kind of I I was marveled because I remember thinking in my head, oh, I'm going to get burned. This is not going to be good. Not a single drop spilled. The plane leveled off. I had my, you know, my feet back with me again on the floor on solid footing. And everyone just kind of looked. I looked because we all thought this was going to be a not a good thing. And all of a sudden, people started clapping. And I kept thinking, I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing. I could never do that again. But I would just take it a bow. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

It's all part of the in-flight entertainment.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

It's all part of the in-flight experience. But it was, it was remarkable. And to this day, I still don't know. I kept saying, I need to talk to somebody who knows, you know, I don't know if it's astrophysics, I don't know what it is, but how that happened that the coffee just came out in this perfect round cylinder and fell right back into the pot in the same format in which it had exited the pot. It was amazing. It was absolutely amazing.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

Yeah. So the first class service was a little bit more elaborate, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Yeah, it was, it was made, it was designed to resemble a fine dining experience in a five-star restaurant. There was a roast beef that was cooked to order on the plane and carved at table side. So anyone ordering the roast beef, no matter how they wanted it cooked, from rare, extremely rare, to well done, which we tended to frown on a little bit, we would prepare and provide. And you know, the first class service would start out with a what was very um uh reflective of Payne, but a caviar service. And it was it was Payne was kind of known for this incredible caviar presentation with the toast points and the sour cream and the bellinis. It was a beautiful service. And then, you know, you'd have a salad cart, and then you'd have the roast beef cart. And for those people who did not wish to have the roast beef, there were other entrees, maybe lobster thermidor or chicken velluté, or some other um uh item that might be reflective of the destination uh city. So it was um it was always a beautiful service in first class, and the food was very good. It was it was really very well done. And uh it was memorable. I think people still today who flew Pan Am First Class remember it. And, you know, there was a whole uh experience out in the West Coast, the Pan Am experience, that uh recreated this whole environment on board Pan Am First Class and it was very popular. Uh, unfortunately, the pandemic has has closed it for the time being, but it really uh gave people the opportunity to see how truly special that service presentation was and the whole experience. It was an experience. It wasn't just a flight, it was an experience.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

So, how does that make you feel that there's a museum about your beloved airline? There's a pan experience in LA where people can uh pay to uh re reexperience what it was like in the 1970s first class. How does that make you feel?

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Oh, there's a sense of pride, there's a sense of joy and um and nostalgia and a desire to, you know, that we always wish, you know, if only. Uh so there's uh there's it's bittersweet in a way. Um, I don't know that that type and level of service would be um able to survive in today's commercial aviation environment. Um, but it's still, you know, it's it's a mixed bag. You you do have a sense of pride, and um, it was something special. You know, it was a moment in time, and I'm just grateful that I had the opportunity to live it.

SPEAKER_02 25:45

So you were uh uh flight attendant, and then you went over to management. How was that transition?

SPEAKER_01 25:51

Um, you know, it it was it was interesting because my my first position within a management capacity was kind of as a special assignment, and I went into what was called departure controls. And so I'm still interacting um routinely daily with the flight attendant group. And a lot of flight attendants, those who did choose to maybe go into an office environment after a while of flying, followed the same route. You came in through the departure controls, and that again is the area where the flight attendants report for their flight. Um, and so you're interacting with them as they come in to leave on the trips, and you're interacting as they come in from their trips. So you you kind of stayed in the same same group. Um, but what what I'm so grateful for is the opportunities that that PM gave me on special assignment as a new operational control supervisor. Uh, and that was, and I used to I always said that PM was my flying carpet around the world uh because I was um invited and asked to go on special assignment to many different cities, and I did special assignments in um in Hong Kong, in um Singapore, in Bangkok, um in uh Kenya. And it and uh I I I'll never forget that you know my having those opportunities to live for several months in those locales really gave me a better understanding of people around the world and different cultures. And um I'm very appreciative, obviously, of my my own home and my own culture, but more appreciative of the fact of what Pan Am meant around the world. Uh, so that was a wonderful experience. I was probably on the road for almost two years with special assignments. Um, and then when I came back, I was asked to um go into the in-flight service office and into uh more of a kind of training role and supervisor role within what was considered an HR department within the flight service group. And um and I enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

You mentioned um earlier in the program uh celebrities and dignitaries. Any stories you'd like to share?

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Well, I guess one of my favorites, and we did have all kinds of different celebrities. Um, you know, and I used to, Peter Jennings was an ABC news anchor at the time, and he used to fly the shuttle a lot. And I my father was a news anchor or news person as well. And so I I don't know, I had this uh this um fascination with Peter Jennings. And so one time when I was working the shuttle and he was on the shuttle, and I was like, oh my God, you know, I was just so happy to meet him, and it was it was thrilling. It was just like cross that off the bucket list. And he couldn't have been nicer, he was just a lovely man, um, you know, from every perspective. And um, but one of my favorite stories is um Rod Stewart. And I was uh living in Manhattan at the time, and I was getting ready to leave on one of my trips, and I had uh gone downstairs and on the corner as I was walking down to get the carry bus, which was the bus that took us to the that would take you to the airport. So as on the corner, I see this very long stretch limo parked, and there's a pair of sunglasses on the top of the roof of the limo. I was like, okay, this person is gonna drive off and they're gonna lose their sunglasses. So I grabbed the sunglasses, and the windows were very tinted. So I tap on the window, the window rolls down, and there's Rod Stewart. Wow. And I kind of said, Oh, hi. You left these on the roof. And he was like, Well, thank you very much, and rolled on the window and off he went. And off I go to the airport to work my New York to London flight. And I'm standing at the boarding door. And guess who's boarding the flight?

SPEAKER_02 29:53

Wow, Rod Stewart.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

Rod Stewart. And he just looked at me because I think there was this moment, like I'm sure he didn't remember, but maybe it triggered something. And I just looked at him and I said, You could have at least offered me a ride. And so we just had a little giggle and then, you know, kind of a nice little banter uh during the flight. But he he was, it was funny. It was a funny, remarkable experience. And it just always sat with me that you just never know where you're gonna run into people or meet them. And and he was and he too was very nice. He was very, very nice. Enjoyed uh just talking to him on the flight.

SPEAKER_02 30:26

What memories really stand out to you, both positive and not so positive in your career at Pan Am?

SPEAKER_01 30:33

Oh, and there were so many. Um, you know, as I said, getting getting my gold wings painted on me was was pretty pretty pivotal, completing uh successfully completing probation. Um going on these special assignments were very special. I worked with other flight attendants who were on special assignment also, and we just had enormous fun. It was hard work. We worked around the clock. Uh there were times when we were doing proving flights for the people that we were hiring overseas and that we were flying and working, you know, 24, 36 hours at a time. But somehow you just did it, and of course, we were a lot younger then, and you came back at the end of a very long day, day and a half, and you just loved what you were doing. And I think that I think there was something about the camaraderie and the people that just made it so very special. Um you know, we had 1988 was a pivotal year for many reasons. Um, it was the best of times and it was the worst of times. Uh, we had a great year. We were recruiting. Actually, I was on the road a lot doing flight attendant recruiting. Um, we were the airline was rebounding fiscally, financially. It was um it looked like the new chairman, gentleman by the name of Thomas Plaskett was riding the ship, as I kind of like to say. And we were kind of riding this high wave, and things were looking like uh they were going to improve and get better. Um so that's probably one of my last really happy moments with Pan Am, in that there was this spirit of hope and elation that things were on an upward swing.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

And that was 1988.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

That was 1988. We had, and I'll never forget this, we had a very big Christmas party that year. And actually, it was at my home, and we had the whole Flight Service Office team and many of the special assignment flight attendants, and we were celebrating. We were having, we, we had a wonderful um event. Uh remembering that we were working hard and we were accomplishing things. We were getting it done. And that was that was positive. And it was um, it was a very happy time.

SPEAKER_02 33:06

And then a little bit after that, uh flight 103.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

It was that next week, actually, it was the week after the party um that it just all came crashing out from underneath us when Panam 103 was um was blown up, you know, by terrorists. And uh that kind of was um the loss of hope. That event kind of was the death knell in some ways, I guess many of us looked at it that way, of the airline that we loved. And we in what was so difficult was that we worked so hard to turn it around. And now it seemed like the forces were just aligning against us, and no matter what we did, no matter how hard we worked, and when we knew that people were deliberately and intentionally because they were scared, um, book not booking Pan Am, not booking to fly Pan Am.

SPEAKER_02 34:04

Because it was a terrorist target.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

Because it was a terrorist target. Um to see the airplanes go out empty and um and the crews come back, there was a sense of uh there was you could see there were people were demoralized because we had worked so hard and we'd gone through so much, and um you thought we thought we were on the right path, and then it was all taken away from us in this horrible, horrible terrorist attack.

SPEAKER_02 34:36

Speaking of Lockerby, uh you have um a personal connection to it. Uh you you were there after the crash. Um, can you share some of your stories in regards to that tragedy?

SPEAKER_01 34:50

Yes. And um, you know, it's still difficult all these years later to remember the emotions and the um the grief, the overwhelming grief that everybody felt, but none more so than the people in London. I was asked uh to uh go over again on special assignment, and I was assigned to assist in the the London Flight Service Office because it the London base was such a it was a small base, and they were we talk about family, the whole company is a family, but they were just so tight, they were a very close-knit group. And this was a London-based crew that was operating Flight 103. So it was all the crew from that base. They were devastated. They were it was almost impossible not to uh feel their pain. You you felt it the minute I remember touching base and going into the office there, and they just it was it was impossible. They they couldn't they couldn't get through the day without this overwhelming sense of grief and dis and disputter despair. Um, so I I was working there for a while. I did have to go to Lockerbie a couple of times um because I was assigned to uh to be a communication link between Pan Am and the two French speaking, the families of the two French-speaking flight attendants who were on board the aircraft. Um and there were nights when I would be on the phone with them and just let them talk for hours. We'd go, we'd talk to three or four o'clock in the morning, uh, just listening, you know, to their grief or to their stories about their loved one and their child, and and it was painful. It was heart-wrenching because you knew there was nothing you could do but listen. Uh the Pan Am was so um good with with attending to the needs, anything. We had carte blanche, and there were many of people like myself who were attached to the families, not only the flight attendant families, but the passenger families. Um, each person was assigned a Pan Am supervisor escort uh that handled every detail that they needed handling. If they needed to come over, if they wanted to be there, you know, then we arranged all the travel. We we took care of everything for them. And I and I'm proud of that association. I'm proud that um that we were able to do that. But it was, there was a knife in our hearts, and it was um, and it was difficult. It was, there's no, there's no getting around, that it still hurts. Um, that whenever there's an anniversary of Lockerby, and um it is common that you see the cockpit that was um broken and that was exploded and found on the ground in Lockerbie, uh splashed across um a newspaper or a media report that your heart doesn't skip a beat and that you don't um wish it weren't so.

SPEAKER_02 37:53

Thank you for sharing that story. So getting back to the museum, anything you want to tell the listening audience?

SPEAKER_01 38:01

Come visit us, come support us, come um visit our website, we're on social media, we're on Facebook, and we're on Instagram, and you can become a panamaniac, as we sometimes refer to ourselves, and um get to know more about this airline that truly did change the world.

SPEAKER_02 38:21

Thank you very much for your time, Linda. I'm sure you will be back on the program.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

I hope so. Looking forward to it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 38:34

Pan Am was a pioneer in air travel and still stands as one of the most iconic and innovative airlines in aviation history. That legacy lives on at the Pan Am Museum in Garden City, New York, where you can explore the rich history of the aircraft and individuals at the heart of the company known as the world's most experienced airline. For more information about the Pan Am Museum, check out our website at www.thepanamuseum.org. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram. Please consider becoming a member of the museum or making a donation. As was once a tagline in one of our commercials, we would greatly appreciate your support to help the Pan Am Museum continue making the going great. We want to hear from you. If you have a question for us or want to share your story, our email address is podcast at the panammuseum.org. And with that, we're going to close out this episode with a Pan Am song called You Call It the World, We Call It Home.

SPEAKER_00 39:43

As flight crews once said to passengers departing for their destinations around the world, thank you for flying, Pan América.