Airline Was Starting to Pull Out of Financial Tailspin
The explosion and crash of a Trans World Airlines jumbo jet Wednesday night came amid a strong effort by the pioneering airline to emerge from a painful era of huge financial losses and corporate strife.
The crash, in fact, overshadowed what was supposed to have been a triumphant day for the St. Louis-based airline. Earlier Wednesday, TWA announced that its second-quarter profit had risen sharply from a year earlier.
The increase in earnings was only the latest chapter in TWA’s comeback.
Once the toast of global air travel and run by billionaire and aviator Howard Hughes, TWA fell on hard times in the 1980s and, by the early 1990s, many presumed it would not survive. It is now much smaller than during its heyday.
Besides losing money, TWA suffered from repeated executive turnover, boardroom feuds and dismal employee morale.
The airline had to seek bankruptcy court protection from its creditors twice, and it still has not earned a full-year profit from ongoing operations since 1988.
However, after emerging from bankruptcy reorganization the second time, in 1995, the airline began to recover.
Led by president Jeffrey H. Erickson, TWA has begun cutting its burdensome debt, hiring workers and improving its oft-criticized service.
The restructuring also has resulted in TWA’s employees owning 30% of the company’s stock in exchange for sizable wage cuts and work-rule changes.
In the quarter ended June 30, TWA earned a $25.3-million profit on a 12% gain in revenue to $965.8 million.
Also, in February, TWA was financially secure enough to place a $1-billion order for 20 Boeing Co. jetliners to expand its fleet, which is one of the oldest in the industry.
As of June 30, TWA had 187 planes in its fleet, including about a dozen 747s, the four-engine, double-decker jumbo jet first introduced by Boeing in 1970. TWA’s safety record for 747s and overall is no worse than that of other major airlines.
But because of its sheer size, the aircraft has been involved in the most deadly air diasters in history. The world’s worst, in fact, occurred when two 747s collided on a fog-shrouded runway in Tenerife in the Canary Islands in 1977, killing 582 people. That crash was blamed largely on pilot error.
In 1985, 520 people died when a Japan Air Lines jumbo jet crashed into a mountain in central Japan after its hydraulic systems failed.
In at least two cases, 747s were the target of terrorist bombings. One was in 1985, when an Air India jet was destroyed off the coast of Ireland, killing 329 people. In 1988, a Pan American World Airways jet exploded and crashed over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270.
Another 747 tragedy occurred in 1983, when a Soviet fighter jet shot down a Korean Airlines 747 off the coast of Siberia after the plane strayed into Soviet airspace. All 269 people aboard perished.
The 747 is built by Boeing in Everett, Wash., and more than 1,000 have been sold since 1970. The plane--which typically seats 350 to 400 people--is a workhorse for busy transoceanic flights. The president’s Air Force One jetliner is also a 747.
TWA, which once competed with Pan American as the premier U.S. operator of international flights, now flies to 18 foreign cities in addition to about 75 U.S. destinations, including Los Angeles.
Besides running a hub operation in St. Louis, TWA also has the biggest presence of any carrier at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. That’s the airport from which TWA Flight 800 had just departed Wednesday night before crashing.
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Worst Crashes
The world’s worst commercial aviation disasters:
1. March 27, 1977: Two Boeing 747s operated by Pan American and KLM collide at the airport on Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands; 582 killed.
2. Aug. 12, 1985: Japan Air Lines Boeing 747 crashes into a mountain on a domestic flight; 520 killed.
3. March 3, 1974: Turkish DC-10 crashes northeast of Paris; 346 killed.
4. June 23, 1985: Air-India Boeing 747 crashes off the coast of Ireland; investigators conclude a bomb caused the crash; 329 killed.
5. Aug. 19, 1980: Fiery emergency landing of a Saudi Arabian L-1011 jet at the airport in the Saudi capital of Riyadh; 301 killed.
6. July 3, 1988: Iran Air A300 Airbus shot down by Vincennes over the Persian Gulf; 290 killed.
7. May 25, 1979: American Airlines DC-10 crashes taking off in Chicago; 273 killed.
8. Dec. 21, 1988: Pan Am Boeing 747 crashes in Lockerbie, Scotland; a terrorist bomb was blamed; 270 killed, including 259 people on the plane and 11 on the ground.
9. Sept. 1, 1983: Korean Air Lines 747 shot down by a Soviet fighter after flying through Soviet airspace near Sakhalin Island; 269 killed.
10. April 26, 1994: A China Airlines A300-600R Airbus exploded and burned during an aborted landing in Nagoya, Japan; 262 killed.
Source: Associated Press
