This past weekend in 1927, the very first Pan Am flight took off from Key West headed for Havana. 80 years later some of the faces of the airline--through the years--gathered in South Florida to remember the Pan American World Airways legacy.Captain John Marshall remembers the night he flew Pan Am's last official flight from Sao Paolo to New York. "I asked the tower if we could take a low pass, they said no," said Marshall. "I thought about it anyway, but then I realized I had 6 hours of Brazilian airspace to fly through."
That was in 1991, but Marshall and 400 former Pan Am employees have reunited in Miami to celebrate the company's 80th anniversary, a story that began in Miami."The original flight in 1927 was out of Key West," said Marshall. "All the major sea plane operations were out of Dinner Key which is presently Miami City Hall."
With 35,000 employees Pan American was once considered the world's leading pioneers in aviation. "I started right out of college and thought I would do it for six months because it was a lot of fun and within six months I knew there was never going back," said flight attendant Carla Marshall.Marshall was with the company for 23 years.
In the early days flying was glamorous and elegant, but now some would say its mass transit."When I fly today I'm amazed at all the security, having to pull out your bag of liquids and the hassle of traveling and the stress of it," said Nancy Hult Ganis, a former Pan Am flight attendant.Pan American Airways no longer flies the skies, but its history lives on in exhibits and collections here in South Florida. This includes the flight academy at Miami International Airport, where former employees had an opportunity to shop for some memorabilia.
Source: CBS-4 Miami