Book Description

In 1966, Pan American Airways reached the zenith of its wealth & influence. Its pilots were lords of the sky; Skygods. Under aviation pioneer Juan Trippe's autocratic control, Pan Am bought jet airliners before its competitors & made record profits. It was the first U.S. airline to order the supersonic transport; it accepted reservations for the first service to the Moon. Then Pan American Airways fell to earth. In Skygods, Robert Gandt, a Pan Am pilot for 26 years, gives an inside account of the great airline's unprecedented demise. He interviewed hundreds of former Pan Am airmen & executives. He reveals how Pan Am's captains, in Navy-style uniforms, once commanded their ships like petty tyrants. They were the best & brightest in airline industry, but there were disturbing stories of captains who allowed stewardesses to land their aircraft, flew them at the wrong altitude & in the wrong direction & who tragically disappeared, often without a trace. All was not well either in the Pan Am Building, the massive landmark in New York where a succession of impulsive & short-sighted CEOs combined to preside over the demise of a great airline. Pan An bought a domestic airline it did not need; bought aircraft it did not need & operated half-empty planes on low-density routes. It sold the entire Pacific network for a bargain price & sold precious assets to meet its payrolls. And then came the Lockerbie tragedy. This is a fascinating account of what can go wrong with a pillar of strength of the U.S. industry, when its leaders lose their sense of direction & when their star employees-the Skygods-discover that they are mere mortals.