Jetrader - May/June 2008 - (Page 27)

Pan Am and the Jolly Green Giant By Bill Bath & Fred Bearden aviation history A large number of Jetrader’s readers have a great deal of experience in the sale and purchase of large aircraft and the sometimes messy procedures in dealing with the transfer of ownership. This account is of one such transaction, in which both of the authors found themselves on site in the middle of a civil war “truce.” I t was on June 25, 1977, when I was called down to the ofﬁce of my boss, Bud Pilling, in what was formerly the old Pan Am Puerto Rico passenger terminal at JFK. It was now the Services of Supply and Aircraft Sales ofﬁces, with its “scenic” view of the fuel tank farm. Besides Pilling, in the ofﬁce was Bob Pablo, Pan Am’s Fuel Manager—my warning ﬂags were immediately hoisted. Pilling handed me an envelope containing a check for approximately six million dollars; he told me to get the night ﬂight to London, take the check to a bank in the City upon arrival and make certain they deposit it in a temporary account we had opened in their Luxembourg branch. I was then to get out to the airport and take the ﬁrst plane available for Beirut. We were doing a swap with TMA, a Lebanese cargo carrier. In exchange for two of our surplus B707-321 freighters and the check, they would give us their ex-American Airlines B747-100F. This involved positioning the two 707s in Bermuda and simultaneously deregistering them at Oak City (short for FAA HQ, Oklahoma City), having TMA deregister the 747 with their authorities and conﬁrming our transfer of the money from Luxembourg into their account. inspectors, working onsite with Fred The FAA inspect Bearden from the Pan Am chief engineer’s ofﬁce and Pa of our JFK-based team o inspectors, had to certify that compliance with U.S. airworthiness the 747 was in com regulations, and their home ofﬁce give clearance for the us to put it on the U.S. register. It was imperative happened and the aircraft got out that all of this hap day. of Beirut the same d It was made clear to me in that ofﬁce meeting that I was responsible to see ups. there were no hold u The TMA crews positioned in Bermuda would wait for the signal from their mantheir agement to stick th registration numbers on the two 707 fuselages, have white paint slapped over and the Pan Am logos a get airborne posthaste. Pan Pilot-Technical, Will Brown, and his crew, Am’s Chief Pilot-Tech Jetrader 27 Photo by Bill Bath

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Jetrader - May/June 2008

Jetrader - May/June 2008 A Message From the President Contents Calendar/News ISTAT's 25th Annual Conference Wrap Up Conference Sponsors and Golf Tournament Winners Honoring Joe Sutter Meanwhile, East of Orlando... Prague Preview CEO Succession Planning Aircraft Appraisals From the ISTAT Foundation Aviation History

Jetrader - May/June 2008

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