Adios Mexicana! memories from Esteban Erik Stipnieks
It seems odd waiting waiting knowing that while the dryer echoes in the background a piece of Aviation history his being made. A great name is vanishing from the skies a glance down at the computer clock time remaining in the death of….Mexicana.
Wow it was long ago I can still remember The massive light center terminal the browns and tans the heat as meals were being loaded onto that 727 at the gate. I was young all of four at the time but I remember. The Golden paint the three engines in the back. I can still see the white airplane with the letters and the bird. I was not only at the airport but I would ride the thing. Where to Puerto Vallarta! It was a turbulent flight but fun through thunder storms and into the mountains of Mexico winding up where? First Guadajara I do not recall the full walk my father took me on the ramp. I remember a new control tower under construction. What a magical trip that began at SAT. Thankfully I remember much of that trip the memories make me smile. Could it be that I flew on both models of the 727 possibly. That makes 100, 200, and 200 advanced wow.
Flash forward many years summer 1987. A flight to Monterrey then San Luis a trip in car a local business man to the city that saw Maximillian fall then a bus ride to San Miguel. The 727 wow what a bird now far more familiar and getting old showing its age. I saw an IL-62 Aeroflot at Mexico city on the return leg to San Antonio.
I would two years later find out what links Mexicana had with Pan Am. Now as I type this 5 minutes left and the great airline will cease. Window seats great things God knows how much of Mexico I saw looking at the window of Mexicana 727.…more then a little. Four minutes left time keeps slipping. The images fewer but still quite real in my memory. The terminal that first saw that plane tripe is soon to be wiped off SAT the last vestiges of the 60s and 70s removed form the lexicon. Now as I type 2 minutes left and the illegitimate child of Pan Am will follow her father into the pages of aviation past. Less then two minutes now odd my 727 memories are mostly of airlines no longer. I am looking now TAA, Ansett and in a few seconds Mexicana firsts and lasts on Boeing 727 now into history…..time slips but great memories remain. Adios Mexicana thanks for memories!