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History Daily

Pan Am Shuts Down for Good

History Daily

Airship | Noiser | Wondery

History

4.42.1K Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2023

⏱️ 20 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

December 4, 1991. After 64 years dominating the skies, a series of poor financial decisions forces Pan American Airways to shut down.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:03.7

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0:06.0

Or you can get all of History Daily, plus other fantastic history podcasts at

0:10.5

Into History.com. It's May 12th, 1992 on the Tarmac at JFK International Airport, a group of people

0:28.0

gathered beside an aircraft that has become synonymous with luxury air travel, the Boeing 747. Stamped on the side of the fuselage

0:36.3

and huge blue letters is Pan Am, the name of the company that made this airplane

0:40.8

model famous and this plane in particular is noteworthy.

0:44.8

It's the company's first 747, the Clipper Juan T Trip, so named after the man who modernized

0:51.2

Pan Am back in the 1920s. Workers wander in and out of the cabin

0:56.2

making all the necessary checks before taking off for Southern California. On the ground,

1:01.4

a mix of reporters, photographers, and Panam employees, Mill about, talking to each other with a mix of reverence and sadness.

1:09.0

But as the jet's engines roar to life, nobody boards the plane.

1:13.5

Today's trip is a special one.

1:15.5

It's going to be the last ever Pan Am flight.

1:19.0

The journey the Clipper Juan T.

1:20.7

Trip is about to take is more of a symbolic gesture than anything else.

1:25.0

Pan Am officially grounded all its passenger flights a few months ago.

1:29.1

Decades of poor financial decisions had left the once great airlines struggling to get out of debt.

1:34.8

Eventually pulling the plug was the only option left.

1:38.2

But the decision to shut down Pan Am Airlines came as a huge disappointment to many Americans, including the countless employees of the airline.

1:46.0

For decades, Pan Am was the defining international airline in the United States, but today that air ends.

1:54.0

The Wann T trip ambles its way down the runway, flanked by fire trucks shooting water

...

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