VOLUME 44 NUMBER 2 JANUARY 19, 1981 Crew Knew Avis/TWA Sponsor Pro Ski Team .File for MEX TWA has asked the Civil Aeronautics What to Do Board for authority to serve Mexico City OnNovember 30, Flight 171, aBoeing727 and Acapulco from St. Louis., starting under the command of Captain Ray Lutz, about June 1. Approval of the application made a nose-up landing at San Francisco. would permit restoration of nonstop serv­ In the words of an airport official, "The ice between St. Louis and the Mexican pilotdidaterrificjob," andal/133 persons · capital and establish the first single-plane . on board were safely evacuated. service between St. Louis and Acapulco. · The professional teamwork ofthe entire The present air agreement between the flight crew in turning an emergency into an U.S. and Mexico provides for St. Louis­ "incident" is eloquently conveyed in the Mexico service only by a M~xican carrier. debrief by SFO-based cabin attendant The CAB nevertheless could designate a Patricia Stewart. Her report is reprinted U.S.-flag carrier on the route, subject to here from "On the Line," the injlight approval by the Mexican government. · services publication. Bilateral discussions on a revised agree­ · by Patricia Stewart ment between the two nations begin in Mexico City on January 2~. _ I was working "A" position. We were on Ifits application is approved, TWA plans final approach into SFO and we were to offer daily nonstop service between St. seated for landing. I heard the landing gear Louis and Mexico City, and ·on to Aca­ doors open and noticed a strong vibrating pulco. Nonstop service to Acapulco is sound. I heard the gear retract and then try planned later. to release again. After a few more tries, Captain Lutz announced over the ·PA that TWA Takes Coupons we had some gear trouble and that we were going to circle while we tried to correct the TWA will accept Eastern Airlines half-fare problem. I heard the gear retract and couponsforuse, throughJune 10,onTWA release several more times and then the services between New York and Los captain called me to the cockpit. He told me Angeles/San Francisco, as well as BOS/ that the landing gear was jammed in some BAL/DCA to Los Angeles and San Diego. way and that we would be making a The coupons, being offered by Eastern on its shuttle flights between New York and nose-up l~ding in SFO .. He said that we would be evacuating the BOS/DCA, will be honored by TWA and passengers through the front two doors allow a 50% discount on one-way, full-fare only and that we would deploy the slides. first class and coach travel. He said that the attitude of the plane after stopping would make the forward two exits Commitment '81 the easiest to use. He-told me to tum all the President Meyer will be talking to cabin lights up and to leave them that way employees at major domestic loca­ for landing. He asked that the megaphone tions again this year, about the past, be put in the cockpit. ·""~ . present and future of TWA. A ques­ STL TWAer Kevin Byrne at Aspen. Story on page 4. He told me what to expect: the plane tion and answer session will follow would land on the back gear, slow down as RPMs Up in December, tions of a return to modest profitability in his formal presentation. "Commit­ much as possible and then slide along the 1981 . ment '81" starts January 29. Tum to runway after the nose was dropped. He .,own for Full Ye.ar In a state-of-the-industry report on 1980 page eight for the full schedule took my hand and asked if I thought I had TWA's system passenger traffic in Decem­ (topage3) my act together and I said that I thought I ber was 1. 91 billion revenue passenger did. His reassurance was instrumental in miles, an increase of 3.2% over December New York Helicopter Starts Service calming my fear. 1979. Domestic traffic rose 5.4%, while I asked Captain Lutz how much time we international was off 1.7%. had to prepare the passengers and he told Capacity reductions of · 10% for the me ·10 minutes. I asked him to announce to month contributed to a load factor im­ the passengers that we would be preparing provement of 7.4 percentage points to them for an emergency before I came on tlie 57.2%. PA. ·As he did that, I briefed the flight TWA's traffic for the full year 1980 was (to page 7) 28.11 billion rpms, down 8.8% from the -. previous year. Domestic traffic was down .1980: Safest Year 10%, international's down,6%. The full­ year system load factor was down 2. 7 The U.S. scheduled airlines achieved points to 61.7%. their safest year in 1980. There was one fatal crash, on June 12, when an Dec. '80 1980 vs. '79 vs. '79 Air Wisconsin plane went down in a Revenue Passenger Miles severe thunderstorm over Nebraska, Domestic + 5.4% - -10.2% killing 13. The single fatal accident is Int'l - 1.7 - 6.0 unmatched in the history of the U.S. System + 3.2 - 8.8 scheduled airlines; the previous safety Available Seat Miles record was set in 1933, ·when there Dm:nestic -11.5% - 7.8%" were 17 deaths. · lnt'l - 6.0 -:- 0.7 The U.S. airlines flew 250 billion. System -io.o ·- 5.6 passenger miles last year, or a _ Load Factors thousand-mile flight for every person Domestic 57 .8% ( +9.3 pts.) 60.9% ( -1.7 pts.) Int'l 55 .6% ( +2.5 pts) 63.3% ( -3.6 pts.) in the U.S. System 57.2%(+7.4pts.) 61.7%(-2.2pts.) ''This is a record of which the airlines can be justly proud,'' says Federal Aviation Administration chief Industry RPMs Drop Langhorne Bond. Cautioning against Preliminary 1980 results for the U.S. complacency, he · added, ''Our goal airlines show a decline of about 5% in must continue to be the_ complete revenue passenger miles - largest in On hand for the inaugural flight of New York Helicopter were (from left) President elimination of accidents. '' history - and record operating losses of Meyer, Governor Hugh Carey of New York, and George G. Dempster, chairman of nearly $200 million, but there are indica- New York Helicopter. (Story page 3) · F458 is New STL·PBI Nonstop Service Editor's Notes One of the reasons TWA has been able to the' other person's write-up, we are too achieve notable improvements in its oper­ critical; if we don't, we are sloppy or ating performance is that so many of its asleep. If we clip things from other papers, people, at every level across the system, we are too lazy to write them ourselves; if are making a conscious effort to find better we-don't., we are too stuck on our own ways pf doing things. stuff... Likely someone will say we swiped The vehicle leading to the implementa­ this from another newspaper. Well - we tion .of many of those improvements has did. been the Employee Council program - in Olive Ann Beech, chairman of Beech the opinio~ of President Ed Meyer, "one of Aircraft Corporation, has received the the airline ls great potential resources, and a Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy for functioning symbol of the unique relation­ 1980. _The award, considered aviation's ship that exists· between TWA's employee highest honor, was presented by the Na­ and management groups." tional Aeronautic Association at the 33rd There are now 38 local employee coun­ annual · memorial dinner in Washington, TWA's newest nonstop, St. Louis to West Palm Beach, was celebrated at the flight's cils within the airline, and in a year-end D.C. Mrs. Beech is the first woman to win inaugural December 13. Joining the celebration at the STL end are (from left): CSA letter to each council chairperson Mr. the award. She was cited as exemplifying John Liebowitz; F/As Paco Careonell,. Barry Schimmel and Amy Bolling; flight Meyer expressed his appreciation to each American aviation leadership. engineer Don Welshhimer; Capt. R. G. Cooper; first officer Charles Drake and F/A one for his or her "personal contribution to 'Thresa Smith. · the task of making TWA a better and The U.S. Postal Service has issued a 28¢ stronger airline. international airmail postal card commem­ underway at 6 p.m. at the Airport Shera­ interpret those orders, sir, as. not applying "A number of other U.S. industries are orating the first nonstop transpacific flight, ton,'·' Captain Phillips announced, "with to the cockpit. There are no gas fumes up in 1931, by Clyde Pangborn an_d Hugh only now begimiing to look at similar kinds dinner at 7:30 and dancing to a live band, 9 front. Sit in the cockpit with me and you Herndon, Jr. The two flew 4,558 miles of programs to tap the collective know -how p.m. to 12 midnight." The tab will be $35 can smoke.' and constructive imagination of their work from Japan to Wenatchee, Washington, in per person but, according to Phillips, itwill , "The rest .of the day, Eisenhower and forces as a means of improving productiv­ 41 hours and 13 minutes at an average be ''worth every cent of it. '' Golien sat together up front; and it was a speed of 110 mph. It was the second ity," Mr. Meyer observed. "At TWA," he To assure availability of;the hotel, ad­ happy crossing.