Down to Earth

For the first time in the air age a pilots' strike grounded a major U.S. airline. It involved 1,100 members of the exclusive Air Line Pilots Association (A.F.L.), forced Transcontinental & Western Air, Inc. to cancel flights over 28,270 miles of foreign and domestic routes.

The long-hovering wage dispute (TIME, Feb. 4) included demands for 29.1% more pay to handle T.W.A.'s fast, four-motored Skymasters and Constellations. Among the union's golden boys (senior pilots now earn around $10,000 yearly) the raises would spell real money.

At New York's LaGuardia Field, striking pilots kept tabs from an automobile parked near the runway; but a picket line surrounded maintenance shops in Kansas City. The Indian delegation to the U.N. Assembly was forced to debark from a T.W.A. plane at Shannon, Eire, and transfer to the unstruck American Overseas Airline. But most U.S. passengers, accustomed to the uncertainties of air travel, took the strike in stride, or the train instead.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.