946: Pan Am Shuts Down For Good
History Daily
History Daily
4.4 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 4 December 2024
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
December 4, 1991. After 64 years dominating the skies, the once-great Pan American Airways shuts down its entire operation. This episode originally aired in 2023.
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Transcript
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| 0:33.2 | Thank you. It's May 12, 1992, on the tarmac at JFK International Airport, a group of people gathered beside an aircraft that has become synonymous with luxury air travel, the Boeing 747. |
| 0:39.1 | Stamped on the side of the fuselage in huge blue letters is Pan Am, the name of the company |
| 0:44.3 | that made this airplane model famous, and this plane in particular is noteworthy. |
| 0:49.4 | It's the company's first 747, the Clipper Juan T. Tripp, so named after the man who modernized Pan Am back in the |
| 0:57.1 | 1920s. Workers wander in and out of the cabin, making all the necessary checks before taking |
| 1:03.4 | off for Southern California. On the ground, a mix of reporters, photographers, and Pan Am employees |
| 1:09.8 | mill about, talking to each other with a mix |
| 1:12.2 | of reverence and sadness. But as the Jets' engines roar to life, nobody boards the plane. Today's |
| 1:19.0 | trip is a special one. It's going to be the last ever Pan Am flight. The journey the Clipper |
| 1:25.1 | Wantee trip is about to take is more of a symbolic gesture than anything else. |
| 1:30.1 | Pan Am officially grounded all its passenger flights a few months ago. |
| 1:34.2 | Decades of poor financial decisions had left the once-great airline struggling to get out of debt. |
| 1:39.8 | Eventually, pulling the plug was the only option left. |
| 1:43.2 | But the decision to shut down Pan Am Airlines came as a huge disappointment to many Americans, |
| 1:48.0 | including the countless employees of the airline. |
| 1:51.0 | For decades, Pan Am was the defining international airline in the United States, |
| 1:56.0 | but today, that era ends. |
| 1:59.0 | The WAN-T trip ambles its way down the runway, flanked by fire trucks shooting water cannons. |
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