There was a short bit on TV about an antique plane crash
which I missed but have not been able to find anything on line
or in newspapers. Pilot supposedly bailed safely. Can anyone
add to this.
Jim
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Pan Am stays grounded as executives look for better bailout plan
MIAMI - Feb 28, 1998 7:24 p.m. EST -- Pan Am rejected a $15
million bailout offer Saturday, saying it would run charters and
seek other funds before resuming commercial flights.
The airline ran out of cash and canceled its weekend flights
Thursday, claiming $50 million in assets and $147 million in debts.
Rothschild Recovery Fund, a New York investment group special-
izing in bankruptcy rescues, made a bailout offer Friday that would
have included $10 million to put the planes back in the air and $5
million for future operating expenses.
But Pan Am did not want to jump on the first loan offer simply
to get planes back in the air quickly, said John Kozyak, the com-
pany's attorney.
"(Pan Am President David) Banmiller wants to make sure not only
do we get back in the air, but we stay back in the air," Kozyak said
at a U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing Saturday. "We know that passengers
are stranded, but we don't want to do that again. We know that there
are employees out of work, but we don't want to bring them back for
two days."
Banmiller said Kiwi International Air Lines will use one Pan Am
jet for daily charter service. Pan Am could also charter flights for
other travel companies.
The Rothschild offer was also contingent on the lender jumping
to first in the line of creditors to be paid if Pan Am had to liqui-
date its assets.
NationsBank, which Pan Am owes $25.6 million, said it is now Pan
Am's primary creditor and would not agree to terms in which Roths-
child would be paid first, said K. Rodney May, NationsBank's
attorney.
The airline has canceled all flights through the middle of next
week. Banmiller said Pan Am could begin flying again within two days
of finding acceptable financing.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge A. Jay Cristol said it was imperative Pan
Am and creditors work quickly and cooperatively "to make this a suc-
cess story instead of one of those sad footnotes in the history of
Chapter 11."
Pan Am has reservations for 260,000 flights over the next year,
including 50,000 reservations for March, Banmiller said.
Cristol said Pan Am will continue to spend $60,000 a day to
lease 10 jets and will spend about $550,000 to continue employee
health insurance benefits for the next month.
Pan Am has about $500,000 to $1 million in cash available and
will receive about $210,000 a week from charter revenue, Kozyak
said.
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