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The end of an airline icon

With payments to fiercely loyal former employees and other creditors, the airline that created an industry in the air may finally rest in peace.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published September 28, 2006

NEW YORK - In the 15 years since Pan American World Airways shut down, Anthony La Pera had assumed he would never get paid for his leftover wages and accrued vacation. But La Pera and 15,000 former employees can expect to open their mailboxes one day this December and find that a check has arrived, marking the end of the liquidation of an iconic airline.

In July, a federal bankruptcy judge authorized the Pan Am Corp. to distribute the money it had secured in a settlement with the government of Libya. Sending out those checks marks the end of a long process of winding down Pan Am.

The defunct Pan Am, which started in 1927 and helped create what was then a new industry, shut down on Dec. 4, 1991, after declaring bankruptcy in January of that year.

Among the last, fatal blows it suffered was the 1988 bombing of Flight 103, a now-infamous attack that ended with 270 dead when a bomb exploded on board as the plane flew over Lockerbie, Scotland. In 2003, Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing and agreed to pay restitution to the victims.

The 68-year-old La Pera and other former employees recently received notices from Wells Fargo & Co., which is coordinating the distribution of about 43 percent of Pan Am's settlement money to former employees. Those who are eligible will get between 5 and 6 percent of what they were owed when the airline shut down in 1991.

For La Pera, that means he will get a check in the range of $1,250 to $1,500, given that he was owed between $25,000 to $30,000 for accrued vacation and back pay.

"It's like found money, in effect, because nobody expected anything to come out of this," he said.

Minus certain fees and the portion of the settlement that goes to the insurers, Pan Am Corp. will have about $31-million to distribute among former employees, ticketholders, bank lenders, commercial vendors and other creditors.

Even before the attack on Flight 103, Pan Am had wedged itself into the hearts and minds of many.

Rarely do companies operating today generate the kind of pride and loyalty heard in the voices of former Pan Am employees. They hold reunions and keep in touch.

Some collect memorabilia, such as decades-old route maps and original flight covers, which were mementos given to first-class travelers that depicted planes or travel destinations. According to a posting on a Pan Am remembrance Web site, someone even tried to start a Pan Am golf club.

When La Pera started working at Pan Am in 1962, he was paid $2.14 an hour. As a crew scheduler, he monitored flights as they landed. Messages were sent by teletype and records handwritten to track them.

He remembers looking forward to the end of his vacations so he could get back to work.

"It was always exciting," he said. "The company, if you look at its history, it had a lot of firsts. We had a part in it, and they made us feel a part of it."

[Last modified September 28, 2006, 15:40:14]