Welcome to the official author site of Philip Jett. Once a corporate and tax attorney advising Fortune 500 corporations and some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment, Mr. Jett has since retired and turned to writing. He is now a New York Times acclaimed author and an international speaker.

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STRANDED IN THE SKY

The Untold Story of Pan Am Luxury Airliners Trapped on the Day of Infamy

By December 1941, Pan American Airways System (Pan Am) flew international routes exclusively . Its scheduled routes doubled those of the ten largest domestic airlines combined. It also held the distinction of being the only airline in the world that traversed the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. With Europe at war, wealthy and affluent passengers clamored to board Pan Am’s transpacific planes that were the largest and most lavish in the world. These “clippers,” as they were called, could carry a fortunate few to exotic destinations in the Orient and the Antipodes that included faraway and mysterious Hong Kong, Macau, Philippines, Singapore, Fiji, and New Zealand. As one passenger wrote home at that time, “Ah, life—it’s wonderful.”

 That first week in December, three Pan Am clippers took off from the West Coast—the Pacific Clipper for New Zealand; the Philippine Clipper for Singapore; and the Anzac Clipper for Hawaii. A fourth, the Hong Kong Clipper, had just arrived in Hong Kong from Manila. The planes’ stewards tended to the passengers’ every need. After all, there was only one class on Pan Am planes—first class. They served slightly chilled champagne and cold beads of caviar and laid out creased linens and soft slippers. As the passengers relaxed, surrounded by the extravagance that their wealth or high-paying careers accorded them, they imagined the pleasurable exploits and exotic destinations that lay ahead of them—all unaware of the attacks being orchestrated by the Empire of Japan that would thrust the United States into another world war and could at any moment add their names to the first casualties of war.