Pritchett Leaves Pan Am for Flying Tiger

Pan Am World Airways vice president Donald E. Pritchett is leaving that airline to join Flying Tiger Line as vice president-flight operations, it was announced Thursday.

Pritchett, 56, is the second executive to leave financially troubled Pan Am in two weeks. Pan Am’s executive vice president-marketing, R. A. McKinnon, resigned earlier to take a similar post at American Airlines.

A Pan Am spokesman said the resignations were “personal decisions on the part of both men . . . they had opportunities elsewhere and took them.”

Two weeks ago Pan Am, in an announcement that seemed to underscore its troubles, said it might sell its 5-month-old New York-Washington shuttle operation unless it starts to make money soon. Pan Am is currently seeking wage and benefit concessions from its employees.

Flying Tiger, the air cargo unit of Los Angeles-based Tiger International, said Pritchett was filling a post that had been vacant for more than a year. Flying Tiger is also facing its own financial troubles and recently won major concessions from its employee groups.