Influential Women Logo
  • Podcasts
  • How She Did It
  • Who We Are
  • Be Inspired
  • Resources
    Coaches Join our Circuit
  • Connect
  • Contact
Login Sign Up

The Famous Trans-World Airlines! (AvHistory #12)

A Deep-Dive into one of the Most Memorable Airlines in US History!

Brooke Bobincheck
Brooke Bobincheck
Owner, Chief Operator
Brooke In The Air Travel LLC
The Famous Trans-World Airlines! (AvHistory #12)

I think it’s time for another episode of aviation history. Let’s dive back in time and re-discover one of the airlines that made aviation truly memorable, Trans-World Airlines! This edition of aviation history focuses on the growth, development, and adaptation was unparalleled but as we will see, it wasn’t enough to overcome the drastic and fast changes differentiating the US aviation landscape. 

When people hear of TWA, they often think of TWA Flight 800 which exploded at 15,000 feet just off the New York coast in 1996, however, despite being the centerpiece of numerous conspiracy theories, flight 800 had comparatively little to do with TWA’s bankruptcy and absorption by American Airlines. Flight 800 did stress the broken debt-saddled airline past its breaking point, or as the American saying goes, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

As with prior aviation history articles, we will start with a brief overview before we perform a deep-dive. Trans World Airlines (TWA) was officially a trunk carrier, a scheduled airline in the United States that operated from 1930 (the year regarded as the de facto start of civil aviation in the United States) until the carrier was acquired by American Airlines in 2001 in its last few years of life as an airline. 

TWA was initially formed as Transcontinental & Western Air (TC&WA, a long acronym that did it no favors in marketing) to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops (via propeller planes as no aircraft had yet been invented that could make a single transcontinental flight without stopping), with Ford Trimotors. With American, United, and Eastern, it was one of the "Big Four" domestic airlines in the United States formed by the Spoils Conference of 1930 (a result of the Air Mail Scandal of 1930, months earlier which ended up consolidating major US mail and eventually-passenger carriers). 

Honestly, an entire article could be written on the importance of the Spoils Conference and the effects it had on the modern aviation industry alone, but we will suffice it to say for now that the conference resulted in the consolidation of various airlines and the ending of the awarding of air mail contracts to the US Army Air Corps (the direct predecessor to the US Air Force, founded seventeen years later in 1947).  

Howard Hughes himself began to acquire TWA stock in 1939 and held a controlling interest by 1944. After World War II, Hughes led the expansion of the airline from the status of Trunk Carrier, to serve Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, as a Full Service (what we now regard as a legacy) Carrier, making TWA a second unofficial flag carrier of the United States, after Pan Am. 

TWA was headquartered at one time in Kansas City, Missouri, and planned to make Kansas City International Airport its main domestic and international hub, but abandoned this plan in the 1970s.

As a result of this abandonment, TWA later developed its largest hub at St. Louis-Lambert International Airport. Its main transatlantic hub was the TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, an architectural icon completed in 1962. The flight center is still in existence today and currently (as of 2026) operated as an on-airport pre-security hotel and owned by American Airlines, as part of its original TWA acquisition. It is listed on the New York State Registry of Historic Landmarks. 

Further in the 1970s, specifically at the end, the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 led to a wave of airline failures, start-ups, and takeovers in the United States, TWA was spun off from its holding company in 1984. Carl Icahn acquired control of TWA and took the company private in a leveraged buyout in 1988. TWA became saddled with debt, sold its London routes, underwent Chapter 11 restructuring in 1992 and 1995, and was further stressed by the crash of TWA Flight 800 in 1996, which would become the third deadliest aviation accident in U.S. history. 

In January 2001, TWA filed for a third and final bankruptcy and was ultimately acquired by American Airlines. Unfortunately, American laid off many former TWA employees in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, in October of that year. 

TWA continued to exist as an LLC for another two years under American Airlines until July 1, 2003. American Airlines closed the TWA famous St. Louis hub in 2009 and with it, ended the last piece of existence of Trans-World Airlines.

I will simply give some notable historical milestones at this point in order to keep this history relatively succinct. 

In its beginning, Transcontinental & Western Air (TC&WA) was formed by the forced merger of Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT), Western Air Express (WAE), Maddux Air Lines, Standard Airways, and Pittsburgh Aviation Industries Corporation (PAIC) at the order of the then-Postmaster General of the United States. 

On September 20th, of 1932, an initial development contract was signed with Douglas Aircraft Company (the predecessor of planemaker McDonnell-Douglas) and the Douglas DC-1 was delivered to TWA in December 1933, the sole example of its type; a fleet, much less an actual sub-fleet was never built due to financial concerns. The DC-1 was followed by the delivery of a batch of 32 Douglas DC-2s that started operations in May 1934 on TWA's Columbus–Pittsburgh–Newark route. Most were phased out by 1937 as the famed Douglas DC-3 started service, but several DC-2s would be operational through the early years of World War II. TWA started using the DC-3 on June 1, 1937. The fleet included ten specialized sleeper aircraft and eight standard DC-3 day versions.

Also in 1937, TWA contracted with Boeing for five Boeing 307 Stratoliners, which included the first civilian pressurized cabin. The planes could carry sixteen night passengers in berths or a total of 33 day passengers. The cabin was pressurized at 12,000 feet, enabling it to fly at an altitude of 20,000 feet, above much of the weather. 

In World War II, TWA contracted its five Stratoliners to the Army Air Force's Air Transport Command after Pearl Harbor. Designated as C-75s, they flew 3000 transatlantic flights to Africa and Europe. TWA also contracted to fly its C-54s and Lockheed C-69 Constellations. Hughes and TWA had developed the Constellation in secret with Lockheed. On April 17, 1944, Hughes and Frye flew the TWA Constellation from Burbank, California, to Washington, D.C., in 6 hours 58 minutes. By the war's end, twenty Lockheed Constellations had been built. They would serve into the 1950s. 

In the post-war era, TWA had ten Constellations by the end of 1945 remaining, and acquired international routes. TWA inaugurated its New York-Paris route on February 5, 1946, with the aircraft named Star of Paris. The Rome, Italy route was initiated on April 2nd, and then extended to Cairo, Egypt. 

Then-CEO, Howard Hughes, flew the TWA Constellation named Star of California from Los Angeles to New York on February 15th, 1946, in 8 hours and 38 minutes. Hollywood passengers on this transcontinental flight included Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, William Powell, Frank Morgan, Walter Pidgeon, Tyrone Power, Edward G. Robinson. Hence TWA's (decades-long, starting at this point) reputation as the "airline of the stars". 

On October 21st of 1946, TWA pilots went on strike. The strike finally ended when TWA and the pilots union agreed to binding arbitration on November 15, 1946. Additionally, TWA lost $14.5 million in 1946, owed $4.34 million in short-term debt and $38.9 million in long-term debt. Yet Hughes opposed the leadership’s financing proposals. They didn’t know it yet, but this debt load was the beginning of the end.

On May 31, 1949, TWA ordered twenty Lockheed 749As. They were operated by TWA reliably for the next 17 years. The 749A was an improved, advanced version of the Lockheed Constellation, in fact the “A” actually stood for ‘Advanced.’

May continued to be a questionable month as in May of 1950, the very next year, the airline officially changed its name to Trans World Airlines. In December of that same year, TWA ordered ten Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellations, a bigger, longer-ranged, much more advanced version of the Constellation. These L-1049s were delivered in 1952. On October 19, 1953, TWA offered nonstop transcontinental service, a first for the airline as these flights no longer needed to make stops in-between to refuel by using the L-1049.

In December of 1954, the Hughes Tool Co. (the long-term majority shareholders) ordered 25 of the new Lockheed L-1449 turboprops, designed to replace outdated propeller aircraft with gas-powered electric turbines. These L-1449s would remain in use until the mid-1980s. 

TWA's flight operations were, for decades, based at Kansas City Municipal Airport, while their overhaul base (MRO-oriented, standing for, as discussed in previous articles, Maintenance, Refit, Overhaul, facilities) was located at the-now defunct Fairfax Airport, also located in Kansas City. When a flood destroyed this facility, the city of Kansas City helped TWA build a new airport eighteen (18) miles northwest of Fairfax Airport. This site of land would become the modern (and larger) Kansas City International Airport where TWA would transfer most of their municipal traffic. 

By the mid-1950s, Hughes Tool Co. placed an order for 8 domestic Boeing 707s, later increased to 15 aircraft in January of1957, and an order for 18 international 707s (Boeing 707i) in March of 1956, bringing the total order with Boeing to 33 jet planes. Then in June of 1956, Hughes placed an order for 30 Convair 880 Skylarks. Hughes wanted the newly ordered Covair's to be made of an aluminum alloy that looked like polished gold with an applied TWA logo in red. They were to be called "Golden Arrows." As shiny as the planes were, and as ambitious as the plan was, the whole plan was later dropped completely and the planes were acquired and applied to “usual” long-haul routes. TWA did in fact suffer from its late entry to the jet age, and Hughes' 1956 order cost $497 million and overall control of the airline.

Two years later, in 1958, as the Civil Rights Movement was just beginning to take shape as a sociopolitical “wave” metaphorically speaking, in the US, TWA became the first major airline to hire an African American flight attendant (now simply abbreviated as ‘FA’), hiring Margaret Grant after another African American woman, Dorothy Franklin of Astoria, Queens, New York, filed a lawsuit alleging “that she had been discriminated against ‘because of poor complexion ... unattractive teeth’ and legs that were ‘not shapely.’” New York state governor W. Averell Harriman praised her hiring, saying the action “would raise American prestige abroad.” He was correct, as the international ‘stock’ of the US rose for a number of years afterwards. 

In 1960, Hughes relinquished control of the airline, as the major stockholder, through the financial terms associated with the jet purchase. As a consequence of that deal, Charles C. Tillinghast Jr. took over as president. The battle over Hughes' control continued in court until 1966 when Hughes was forced to sell his stock. That sale brought Hughes $546,549,771 USD in 1966 dollars, not accounting for inflation, that is $5,570,297,574.18 USD in 2026 dollars. To say Mr. Hughes could retire comfortably and never have to work again would be a massive understatement.

Under new management, the Trans World Corporation (TWA's holding company) expanded to purchase companies that had nothing to do with air travel, from Hilton Hotels, Hardee's (the burger chain) and Carl’s Jr. (Hardee's sister chain on the west coast of the US), to Canteen Corp., and Century 21 Realty. Overall employment grew to nearly 10,000 employees, nationwide. 

In 1962, TWA opened Trans World Flight Center, now Terminal 5 (or simply T5), and currently home to JetBlue Airways, at New York City's JFK Airport (then known as Idlewild Airport until after JFK’s assassination which would culminate in the airport being named memorialized after the president).The terminal was expanded in 1969 to accommodate jumbo jets, went dormant in 2001, and underwent renovation and expansion beginning in 2005 paid for by American Airlines. A new terminal with a crescent-shaped entry hall and now serving JetBlue, as mentioned, opened in 2008 (part of an agreement with the Northeast Alliance JetBlue made with American)—partially encircling the landmark. The headhouse and flight center was renovated and turned into the TWA Hotel which opened on May 15, 2019. Kansas City approved a $150 million bond issue for the TWA hub at the new Kansas City International Airport. TWA vetoed plans for a Dulles International Airport–style (Washington D.C.) hub-and-spoke gate structure. Following union strife, the airport ultimately cost $250 million when it opened in 1972, with President Nixon’s Vice President, Spiro Agnew officiating the opening ceremony. 

TWA introduced the iconic Boeing 747 jumbo jet to its fleet in 1970, just after its debut.

As the 70s progressed, so did the troubles. Financial woes in the 1970s included a massive fleet-wide flight attendants' strike, higher fuel prices after the Arab Oil Embargo, and airline deregulation to cap the decade. During the early 1970s, the aviation industry faced significant challenges due to a severe economic downturn. TWA, in particular, had difficulties as their new Boeing 747s and standard-bear Lockheed L-1011s flew with very low passenger numbers. TWA had originally purchased these planes not because they needed them for their operations, but rather because Pan Am had ordered a large number of them and TWA wanted to compete with Pan Am. Consequently, TWA had to manage excess capacity with a fleet of oversized planes that exceeded their actual requirements. By the mid 1970s, the financial obligations of some employee payrolls could only be fulfilled by promptly selling six Boeing 747 aircraft to the Iranian Air Force, at the time, an ally of the US before the Islamic Revolution toppled the Shah. The financial deal involving TWA, in which the jetliners were sold for around one-sixth of their true value, was ultimately regrettable and netted little in actual cash value. However, the airline was in a state of desperation for immediate liquidity. TWA was experiencing financial losses on its trademark trans-Pacific route which was part of its around the world route network during the early 1970s. In a significant milestone, TWA's network expanded globally for the first time in its corporate history. However, this achievement would be short-lived as finances required a cut and the trans-pacific network was the first to be gotten rid of. 

The airline consolidated its route system around a central domestic hub in St. Louis, aided by its purchase of Ozark Air Lines in 1986 (which did not complement its network well and was odd to acquire but desperate times call for desperate actions), a small regional carrier based in Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, and an international gateway was made official in New York, officially Kennedy International Airport since 1964. TWA was able to remain profitable during this time only because of its good route positioning and the relatively low costs of adapting its operations.

In 1983, Trans World Corporation spun off the airline. In 1985, TWA closed its hub at Pittsburgh International Airport after nearly 20 years as a hub, and after acquiring Ozark Air in 1986, TWA's share of enplanements (passengers boarding) in St. Louis increased from 56.6% to 82% for a short time. In 1987, Carl Icahn, still head of the company, moved the TWA’s main offices from Manhattan to office buildings he owned in the small town of Mount Kisco in Westchester County, New York to save more money. 

TWA earned a profit of only $106.2 million in 1987. In September 1988, TWA stockholders approved a plan to take the company private, winning Icahn $469 million in personal profit, but adding $539.7 million in debt to TWA, increasing the bleeding on the body that was TWA.

Make no mistake, employees by and large loved working for TWA, and many former employees have said in interviews that those years were the best and most memorable.

Every day, Boeing 747, Lockheed L-1011, and then-new Boeing 767 aircraft departed to more than 30 cities in Europe hemorrhaging money for TWA no matter how much it gained from the routes operated. Europe “spoke cities” were fed by a small but effective domestic operation focused on moving U.S. passengers to its New York hub or other gateway cities for wide-body service across the Atlantic, in an effective hub-and-spoke model while a similar inter-European operation shuttled non-U.S. passengers to TWA's European gateways—London, Paris (which was even considered a European hub and base by TWA), and Frankfurt, Germany—for travel to the United States. A model that exists to this day even though it was too little and too late for TWA. The airline sent its senior DC-9 pilots (known and still known as Check Airmen) to Europe to observe the operations in preparation for the changeover of the crews that were to follow. Shortly before the DC-9 airplanes began arriving in Germany, however, the entire plan for aircraft and crews were cancelled because the leasing contracts that Carl Icahn had created for the former Ozark DC-9s specifically forbade any operations outside the continental limits of the United States. 

In 1990, Icahn's pressing need for additional capital forced him to sell the airline's London-Heathrow operations to American Airlines about the same time that Pan American World Airways sold its Heathrow operation to United Airlines. The torches were already being passed.

Leadership analysis, by 1992, overlooked the possible implications of the transpacific industry and the specialized air freight market (led by FedEx and UPS). Based on available reports, there are allegations that the CEO at the time, Charles Tillinghast purportedly articulated the perspective that the Pacific area and the freight business exhibit a deficiency in financial performance. The primary aim of their endeavor was to diminish the scale of the airline to achieve financial sustainability. It was the corporate aviation equivalent of cutting off limbs in the hope of saving the body. 

Airline deregulation hit TWA hard in the 1980s. TWA had badly neglected domestic U.S. expansion at a time when the newly deregulated domestic market was growing quickly. TWA's holding company, Trans World Corporation, spun off the airline, which soon became starved for capital. The airline briefly considered selling itself to renowned corporate raider Frank Lorenzo in the 1980s, but ended up completely selling to yet another corporate raider, Carl Icahn, in 1985. Lorenzo would likely not have been any better than Icahn. Under Icahn's direction, many of TWA’s most profitable assets were sold to competitors, much to the increased and compounded detriment of TWA. Carl Icahn was eventually ousted by the board in 1993, though not before the airline was forced to file for bankruptcy on January 31, 1992. The damage was done and chapter 11 bankruptcy was filed for the first time in federal court in New York.

Don’t worry readers, we’re nearing the end. When Carl Icahn left in 1993, he arranged to have TWA give Karabu Corp., an entity he controlled, the rights to buy TWA tickets at 45% off published fares through September 2003. This was named “the Karabu deal.” This “deal” has gone down in history as one of the most egregious corporate fleecing deals in US corporate history and studied today as a key element of case analysis in business schools nationwide. Icahn sincerely thought that since he was being kicked out, he would take TWA down with him. Icahn is still alive today, though his son handles most active business dealings, the Icahn Methodology has not changed and he has given motivational talks about this method of corporate raiding.

In essence, the ticket program agreement, which began on June 14, 1995, stated that tickets for travel which originated or terminated in St. Louis, Missouri would be excluded. Tickets were subject to TWA's normal seat assignment and boarding pass rules and regulations - they were not assignable to any other carrier and were not endorsable. No commissions were paid to Karabu by TWA for tickets sold under the ticket program agreement. By agreement dated August 14th, 1995, Lowestfare.com LLC, a wholly-owned operating subsidiary of Karabu, was joined as a party to the ticket program agreement. Pursuant to the ticket program agreement (the “Karabu deal”), Lowestfare.com could purchase an unlimited number of system tickets. System tickets are tickets for all applicable classes of service which were purchased by Karabu from TWA at a 45% discount from TWA's published fare. As an ultimate result and why this is regarded as a fleecing scam, on most TWA flights, Karabu could buy at a heavy discount and then sell a certain portion of all TWA's available seats. As a result, TWA was hamstrung by the high proportion of heavily discounted seats that had been sold and was essentially left with no control over its pricing. It could not afford to discount any of its seats, and if TWA wanted to increase revenue on busy routes by putting a larger plane into service, Karabu would only claim more seats. TWA was losing an estimated $150 million a year in revenue due to this deal. This had effectively killed TWA.

To ameliorate the Karabu deal, TWA entered and exited chapter 11 bankruptcy again, this time in 1995. When TWA emerged in August of that year, employee ownership was reduced to 30%, but the company was relieved of $0.5 billion of its $1.8 billion USD debt load.

In a short-lived turnaround, executed in 1998, TWA had reorganized as a primarily domestic carrier, with routes centered on hubs in St. Louis and New York. Partly in response to TWA Flight 800 (in 1996) and the average age of its fleet, TWA announced a major fleet renewal, ordering 125 new aircraft. TWA further paid for naming rights for the new Trans World Dome, home of the then-St. Louis Rams (now the Los Angeles Rams), in its corporate hometown. The Rams, it should be noted, were regarded as one of the best teams in the NFL at the time, nicknamed the “greatest show on turf” therefore, the marketing was very strong and TWA hoped to capitalize on this. In June 1994, its headquarters moved to One City Center in downtown St. Louis, Missouri.

TWA's fleet-renewal program included adding newer and smaller, more fuel-efficient, longer-range aircraft such as the Boeing 757 and 767 and short-range aircraft such as the McDonnell-Douglas MD-80 and Boeing 717. Aircraft such as the Boeing 727 and 747, along with the long-serving Lockheed L-1011 and older DC-9s, some from Ozark Air, and the 1960s, were finally retired.

TWA had, at its height, international code-share agreements with Royal Jordanian Airlines, Kuwait Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Air Europa, and Air Malta. In 1997, a code-share agreement was signed with the privately-owned Air Ukraine with plans to begin service between Paris and Kyiv by 1999. 1999 also brought a domestic code-share with America West Airlines, with long-term plans for a merger heavily considered.

In terms of further means to ends, the airlines' routes were also changed; several international destinations were dropped or changed. The focus of the airline became domestic with a few international routes through its St. Louis hub and smaller New York (JFK) and San Juan, Puerto Rico hubs. Much like American Airlines is now. Domestically, the carrier improved services with redesigned aircraft and new services, including "Pay in Coach, Fly in First," whereby coach passengers could be upgraded to first class as long as they flew through its St. Louis base. Internationally, services were cut. European destinations eventually were limited to only London and Paris; and three destinations in the Middle East, Cairo (Egypt), Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) and Tel Aviv (Israel).

TWA stated that it planned to make Los Angeles a focus city around October 2000 by utilizing LAX, with a partnership with American Eagle Airlines (American’s regional subsidiary) as part of their Trans World Connection, though American Airlines would take over and dominate this domestic system and focus city connection. 

The third failure then came about. TWA’s financial problems soon resurfaced and Trans World Airlines Inc. assets were acquired in April of 2001 by AMR Corp., the parent company of American Airlines, which quickly formed a new company called TWA Airlines LLC. As part of the deal, TWA declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy (for the third time) the day right after it agreed to the purchase. The terms of the deal included a $745 million payment. The bankruptcy court approved the purchase over a rival bid by Jet Acquisition Group, an investment group fronted by Ralph Atkin, founder of SkyWest Airlines. TWA was now effectively part of American Airlines. 

The total assayed value of TWA's assets and assumed liabilities upon merger with American was estimated to be $2 billion. American did not claim the naming rights for the Rams' home, which eventually became the Edward Jones Dome (after the naming rights were purchased in a new contract by Edward Jones Investments Group) and later simply, "The Dome at America's Center" though it was still colloquially known as the Edward Jones Dome by local fans, until the Rams left for Los Angeles.

TWA flight booking officially ended on November 30th, 2001 as American finally completed the merger and acquisition of Trans-World Airways. TWA Airlines LLC flew three last flights all on December 1, 2001, with two of the final three flights performed with an MD-83 aircraft painted in a special inverted livery named “Wings of Pride.” The ceremonial last flight was a domestic flight; Flight 220 from Kansas City to St. Louis, with CEO Captain William Compton at the controls. The final flight before TWA was 'officially' absorbed by American Airlines was completed between St. Louis and Las Vegas, Nevada, also on December 1, 2001.

The changeover occurred at 10:00 pm CST on December 1st, 2001 after the last flights had left their gates; employees began removing all TWA signs and placards from airports around the country, replacing them with American Airlines signs. At midnight, all TWA flights officially became listed as American Airlines flights. The change was handled with surprising reverence. 

American Airlines acquired some Ambassadors Clubs (as TWA’s lounges were called); other Ambassadors Clubs closed on December 2, 2001, the day after TWA’s last flights departed.

TWA's St. Louis hub shrank after the acquisition, due to its proximity to American's larger hub at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (also United Airlines’ main base and hub which American was already competing against). As a result, American initially replaced TWA's St. Louis mainline hub with regional jet service (going from over 800 operations a day to just over 200) and severely downsized TWA's maintenance base in Kansas City. In September of 2009, American Airlines announced its intent to entirely shut down the St. Louis hub it inherited from TWA and, in October 2009, American Airlines announced its intent to close the Kansas City maintenance base completely by September 2010. This was done to extremely negative fanfare as hundreds of people lost their jobs and both Kansas City and St. Louis suffered fiscally with an entire 2% of each city’s population becoming impoverished almost overnight. 

On December 16th, 2013, Doug Parker, current CEO of American Airlines Group, publicly announced that TWA heritage aircraft would be added in the future: "We will continue that tradition at American, including introducing a TWA aircraft in the future and keeping a US Airways livery aircraft (ironically, American acquired US Airways at the same time in 2013, completing the merger in 2014). That also means we will keep a heritage American livery in the fleet". So that in some way, TWA’s ancestry and heritage (and legacy) will live on.

I would be remiss if I did not mention something about the TWA Flight 800 disaster. TWA's worst accident occurred on July 17, 1996, when Flight 800, a Boeing 747-100 en route to Paris, exploded over the Atlantic Ocean near Long Island, killing all 230 people on board. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that the most likely cause of the disaster was a center-fuel-tank explosion sparked by exposed wiring. In their subsequent coverage, the media focused heavily on the fact that TWA's airline fleet was among the oldest in service (the 747 used for Flight 800 was a 100 variant, an initial production line model, manufactured in 1971, making it 25 years old at the time of the incident). The crew was led by 58-year-old Captain Ralph G. Kevorkian, who had flown for TWA for 31 years and the U.S. Air Force for nine years and had logged 18,700 flight hours, including 5,490 on the Boeing 747. Captain and check airman Steven E. Snyder, 57, had flown for TWA for 32 years and had logged 17,200 flight hours, including 4,700 on the Boeing 747. Flight engineer and check airman Richard G. Campbell Jr., 63, had flown for TWA for 30 years and the U.S. Air Force for 12 years and had logged 18,500 flight hours, including 3,800 flight hours on the Boeing 747. By all rights, the 230 passengers and 12 flight attendants, could not have been in better or more veteran hands.

We hope this helps connect the metaphorical dots in the aviation industry. Join us and make your travel itinerary safely at brookeintheairteavel.net!

Featured Influential Women

Rachel Morris Regan
Rachel Morris Regan
Licensed Realtor
Columbia, MD 21044
Shelby Barron
Shelby Barron
Web Design Specialist
Junction, TX 76849
Allyson Gronowitz
Allyson Gronowitz
Senior Editor
Portland, OR 97214

Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.

Contact

  • +1 (877) 241-5970
  • Contact Us
  • Login

About Us

  • Who We Are
  • Press & Media
  • Company Information
  • Influential Women on LinkedIn
  • Influential Women on Social Media
  • Reviews

Programs

  • Masterclasses
  • Influential Women Magazine
  • Coaches Program

Stories & Media

  • Be Inspired (Blog)
  • Podcast
  • How She Did It
  • Milestone Moments
  • Influential Women Official Video
Privacy Policy • Terms of Use
Influential Women (Official Site)