Pan Am clipper, Vol. 6, No. 10, October 1980

              TWA to acquire National terminal
M-130 vets say:
Truk Island wreckage not “Hawaii Clipper”
Trans World Airlines has agreed in principle to acquire the former National Airlines terminal at Kennedy Airport in New York.
A letter of understanding, signed by Pan Am President Dan Colussy and TWA President and Chief Executive Officer C.E. Meyer, Jr., paved the way for the acquisition, pending final approval by the Port of New York Authority.
Details of the agreement are still under discussion, but TWA hopes to occupy the facility by late fall, 1980.
National Airlines began service from the JFK building in 1968. The
terminal occupies 343,500 square feet of space with two operating satellites, each providing parking space for five to six aircraft.
Pan Am plans to operate all its domestic and international flights via Kennedy from its Worldport terminal by late fall. The Worldport currently provides 21 gate positions, including two mobile lounges.
According to Wally Russell, vice president property and facilities, flights operating from the National Terminal will be accommodated within the existing framework of the Worldport.Russell noted that the space now alloted to
USAir will be reduced to one gate and that construction of a new baggage claim area for passengers arriving on domestic flights is underway.
The TWA terminal adjoins the former National facility. TWA, anxious to expand its terminal space at Kennedy, has tentative plans to construct a moving sidewalk between the two buildings.□
Recent media speculation that the wreckage of the long-lost “Hawaii Clipper” had turned up on remote Truk Island in the Pacific, has apparently been put to rest by a group of veteran Pan Am employees, all of whom were intimately familiar with the Martin 130 aircraft.
It started when ex-Army pilot Joe Gervais, author of “In Search of Amelia Earhart,” claimed that photos he took at Truk in 1964 showed the upturned wreckage of what he believed to be an M-130.
Gervais made the claim on the strength of another author’s theory that the Hawaii Clipper’s disappearance in 1938 was the work of aircraft hijackers. Ronald W. Jackson, author of the documentary “China Clipper,” said evidence he uncovered led to the hijacking theory.
Through the efforts of San Francisco Aware Chairman Edward Lowery and Aware member Bob Williams, Gervais was invited to Pan Am’s San Francisco headquarters to show his photos to 17 Pan Am present and retired employees who worked with the Martin 130 in the late 1930s.
Their conclusion: The photos were not that of a Martin 130. For
one thing, the photos showed flying boat wreckage with porthole-type windows. The Martin 130 had square windows.
As to the hijacking theory, it remains just that... a theory. Factual evidence gathered to date indicates that the Hawaii Clipper was lost during a storm while on a flight between Guam and Manila with six passengers and a crew of nine.
Among those M-130 experts examining Gervais’ photos were:
J. L. “Doc” Savage, an M-130 flight engineer; Jack Schakel, mechanic; Hugh Cone, flight engineer and mechanic; Ed Barnett, flight engineer; Ford Cook, mechanic; Captain Haakon “Hack” Gulbransen, M-130 navigator and co-pilot; and, J. C. “Bing” Layman, mechanic.
Also, Willard “Bill’ Richter, mechanic; Harold Lilley, flight engineer and mechanic; E. G. Beers, flight engineer and mechanic; E. L. Paris, mechanic; Jack Pirrone, mechanic; John Boyle, station manager; A. H. Buchol, mechanic; Rome Collins, safety engineer; Bob Tollefsen, mechanic helper; and Harry Davidson, mechanic helper. □
—James A. Arey
Trans World Airlines will acquire the former National Airlines terminal at Kennedy Airport, pending approval by the Port Authority of New York. TWA, whose terminal adjoins the National facility, hopes to occupy the buiding by late fall.
Autumn reductions in force
By Martin R. Shugrue Vice President Industrial Relations
The Air Transport Association reports that 1980 will be the worst economic year in the history of the United States airline industry due to the astronomical rise in fuel costs and the effects of the national recession on traffic. Presidents of foreign flag carriers have stated that they, too, are experiencing sharply negative results and that they will reduce flying hours and, therefore, personnel this fall. So, regretfully, will Pan Am.
Before we took such a step, we cut every divisional budget in the company in an effort to reduce things rather than people. We also had been aware that times were going to be tough early in the year and had left 1000 jobs open so that new hires wouldn’t have to be let go just as they commenced their Pan Am careers.
As the losses during the first six months mounted for Pan Am and virtually every other air carrier in the world, we developed a program to ease the blow that a layoff in the fall must bring. We may be a big company, but we’re not so big that we cannot appreciate the anxiety and frustration felt by anyone who is laid off through no fault of his own. It’s a sad time and we tried to make it a little easier.
First, all areas of the company were affected—not just a few. Seven hundred eight members of
management or 18 percent of the entire managerial work force departed the company Aug. 31. I’m pleased to say that 538 of that number selected a generous early retirement package.
Next, the Board of Directors approved a similar early retirement program for employees who are members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Transport Workers Union and the Independent Union of Flight Attendants. Eligible members of theTrans-port Workers Union and Independent Brotherhood of Teamsters are examining the program now and will make their personal decisions as to whether they will accept such early retirement soon.
To the best of my knowledge, no other airline has extended such a beneficial program to their contract employees. In addition, Pan Am will approve extended leaves of absence and other job innovations to keep outright layoffs to a minimum.
At this stage, I don’t have a precise figure as to the number of employees who will face layoff this fall since it will be tied to the number who voluntarily take leave or retire. We will not displace one more p ~>x-son that we have to and, logically, the more who choose early retirement, the less who will have to be laid off.
The reduction in flying hours and consequent cut in staff has nothing whatsoever to do with the January
merger of Pan Am and National. As I noted, almost every airline in the world is implementing some form of reduction procedure due to high costs and uneven traffic. Our competitors are suffering in the same manner and for the same reasons that we are and none had any merger activity to affect their programs.
Pan Am has come light years from those grim days in the mid-70s when we were in very tough shape indeed. National’s employees have also suffered through lean and worrisome times and managed not only to survive but to prosper. And, so will the new Pan Am because it is made up of the same people of skill and spirit who built this airline and continue to make it function.
We’ve tried to be fair in the manner we applied the layoff policy and generous in how we structured and applied early retirement. The difficulties that crowd us were not specifically Pan Am’s but, universally, the airline industry’s. That doesn’t make them any less severe and perhaps misery does appreciate company just a little. But those are the facts.
The economy will improve and the new Pan Am will be poised and ready to take advantage of every turn for the better. We put together this airline not to last for the next year or the next ten years but as long as people fly from place to place. We are not merely survivors. We intend to be winners. □
Airborne opera star makes classics live
Yu Lu has his feet on the ground and his head in the clouds, both on the boards and aboard at 39,000 feet.
Part of the time the lithe 32-
year-old is a top flight, internationally acclaimed Classical Chinese dancer-actor-singer, totally immersed in the colorful theater of
continued on page 7
Flight attendant and star of Classical Chinese opera, Yu Lu strikes a militant pose.
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