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Wendy Knecht

Wendy Knecht

Former Pan Am flight attendant and author of the memoir "Life, Love, and a Hijacking: A Pan Am Flight Attendant's Memoir," and Pan Am Museum Foundation contributor.

Sep 5, 2026

38:10
Tell us about that connection.
38:12
Well, we had like a four-month period of training, and we started out in London overnight where we do service training.
38:22
And then the supervisors went back to Bombay, and we would go on with the flight attendants, the new flight attendants, who were, I have to say – Even before all this happened, we knew how amazing they were.
38:34
Pan Am, it was a very sought-after job, and Pan Am picked only the best, and we were so lucky to have these wonderful people.
38:44
So when we went back to Bombay, we would supervise the flights, and we'd go with them on their training flights, which every flight attendant is on probation for six months before they get their gold wings.
38:56
So I had made a lot of personal relationships while I was there, So I was going back for a visit, and I left on September 4th, 1986, from Los Angeles.
39:11
My flight ran Los Angeles, Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Karachi, Karachi, Bombay.
41:47
Can you talk about that and what you understood about how they carried it?
20:35
Yeah, two of them, right.
20:37
I th- I think two of them.
20:39
It was so generous of you.
20:42
Of course, to me it meant so much that you talked about Flight 73 and the, and the effect that that had on everyone, and, um, how traumatic that event was, and about Neerja.
20:56
And I just, gosh, it's hard to pick one that's my favorite, but I love all your interviews, like your interview with Dorothy Kelly, just spotlighting these people that had such an effect but were in the background, you know, that nobody really knew their stories.
21:13
And it's really important, and I think that's what's so great, one, one of, one of the great things about the podcast.
21:19
And I agree with Ken, the interview with Susan Classen.

10 MINS LATER

31:27
So, um, as we're coming to the end of this segment, what closing thoughts would you like to share with us? Uh, Wendy, would you like to go first?

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