HoodaThunk?

There are many, many users in the blogosphere who are in college and early in their working careers who will have no conscious memory of that entity that flew under the name “Pan Am.” That’s because Pan American World Airways shut down operations 15 years ago, a victim of the aviation industry’s adjusting to deregulation and of a singular attack: Pan Am 103, brought down over Lockerbie, Scotland by a pair of Lybian terrorists who managed to smuggle a bomb aboard. The employees of that airline, like most employees of companies that shutter their operations, were left hanging for their last paychecks and accrued benefits like sick time and vacation.

It appears, finally, they’re going to get some of what’s owed them. Checks are being prepared now as a result of a July federal bankruptcy ruling that will pay out from funds gathered from Libya as part of a settlement.

The defunct Pan Am, which started in 1927 and helped create what was then a new industry, shut down on Dec. 4, 1991, after declaring bankruptcy that January. Among the last, fatal blows it suffered was the 1988 bombing of Flight 103, a now-infamous attack that ended with 270 dead when a bomb exploded on board as the plane flew over Lockerbie, Scotland.

In 2003, Libya accepted responsibility for the bombing and agreed to pay restitution to the victims. Pan Am’s payments come from a separate settlement of a lawsuit its insurers brought against the Libyan government.

Mr. La Pera, 68, and other former employees recently received notices from Wells Fargo & Co., which is coordinating the distribution of about 43 percent of Pan Am’s settlement money to former employees. Those who are eligible will get between 5 percent and 6 percent of what they were owed when the airline shut down in 1991.

For Mr. La Pera, that means he will get a check in the range of $1,250 to $1,800, because he was owed between $25,000 and $30,000 for accrued vacation and back pay.

I feel a particular kinship with the employees of Pan Am. Working at Washington Dulles back in the late 80′s I recall hearing the multi-lingual announcements of Pan Am’s flights arriving and departing. Their Boeing 747 “Clippers” were grand to behold to the eyes of a regional commuter employee such as myself. I was at the airport that day when news of PA 103 came in. They outlasted my airline, Presidential Airways, by about a year and the shutdown of Presidential left me without a couple of week’s pay and the complete loss of months of what was supposed to have been deposited in my 401(k). (Yes, I’d have sued for it but there was nothing left to sue.) There’s no chance I’ll ever see any of that for myself, but it’s good to hear that others affected by an airline’s grounding will get something back for their troubles.

And with this, the book will finally close on Pan Am.