Help for Pan American
     Miami, March 13 - Financier Carl Icahn offered to buy Pan Am
 today in a $43 million deal that could get the airline out of bank-
 ruptcy proceedings, but the judge said he was unimpressed by the
 offer.
     "I don't see it as the solution to the Pan Am problem," U.S.
 Bankruptcy Judge A. Jay Cristol said at a hearing today.
     Another bankruptcy hearing was set for Monday to draft bidding
 procedures for the airline, which grounded regular service Feb.
 28.
     Icahn, a takeover expert who ran TWA from 1985 to 1993, proposed
 committing $25 million for Pan Am operations, $10 million to cover
 previously purchased Pan Am tickets and $8 million for the Pan Am
 name and real estate.
     Under the Icahn offer, flights could resume in three to four
 months. But only $8 million would be distributed to Pan Am's
 creditors.
     Icahn's plan does not specify how many employees would be re-
 tained, but Pan Am's employees would be given preferential hiring
 when flights resume.
     "We talk about Mr. Icahn riding up with $43 million," Judge
 Cristol said at the hearing. "He may have $43 million in his pocket,
 but he's only going to put $8 million on the table."
                           Helped TWA Before
     Icahn got early credit for returning TWA to profitability in
 1987, but costs of maintaining the airline's fleet, pressures from
 the Persian Gulf War and recession forced it into bankruptcy court.
     Pan American World Airways Inc. and Pan American Airways Corp.
 sought bankruptcy protection Feb. 26 with $50 million in assets and
 $147 million in debts.  Pan Am Corp. was not part of that filing.
     The original Pan Am World Airways failed and shut down in 1991
 in the wake of the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, which
 killed 270 people.
     The Pan Am name was sold at a bankruptcy auction and used to
 start a new airline two years ago. Apart from the logo and a few
 employees who came to the new company, there was little in common
 between the revered old international carrier and new low-priced
 domestic airline.
     The new Pan Am began with 250 employees and three jets, offering
 one daily flight between New York and Miami, and New York and Los
 Angeles. It eventually carried 5,000 passengers daily to 14 cities,
 serving Florida, the Northeast, Midwest and Puerto Rico.
     Although regular air service was grounded, the airline is con-
 tinuing to run charter flights.
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 Newest airport X-ray machines damage film - By The Associated Press
     WASHINGTON - A new X-ray machine being used in some airports to
 detect hidden explosives can damage photographic film in checked bag-
 gage, the Federal Aviation Administration is warning.
     Since the FAA will not say where the machines are in use, it is
 advising airlines to tell passengers that they should no longer put
 film in any checked bag. Instead, they should take it onto their
 in their pockets or carry-on bags.
     The device involved is the CTX5000, a high-powered X-ray machine
 that uses the same technology found in medical CT-scan machines. The
 machine uses X-rays to map the objects inside a bag and sounds an
 alarm when the resulting image resembles a bomb. The FAA bought 54
 of the machines for $52.2 million and began installing them around
 the country in January 1997.
    The CTX-5000 was suspected when a crew for British director David
 Attenborough recently returned home from five weeks of filming birds
 in Papua New Guinea and found their film was fogged.
     "We did tests in conjunction with Photographic and Imaging Manu-
 facturers Association and they determined that the CTX-5000 can in
 some circumstances damage film when in checked bags," FAA spokes(wo)-
 man Rebecca Trexler said Friday.
     Photographic film is not harmed by the metal detectors and hand-
 bag X-ray machines used by airline passengers.
 Knoxville News Sentinel 14 March 1998
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