Last Flight Of Pan Am 759?

Last Thursday afternoon I was sitting in my office doing some mundane clerical work when my e-mail client beeped, informing me of a new incoming message, a one-liner which simply asked, "Have you seen this?" Then a link to MSNBC's web site telling of a plane crash in the Hudson River just off midtown Manhattan. I read the first few lines and immediately ran to the television, to which I was glued for the remainder of the afternoon.

As a location photographer who, in better economic circumstances, has been known to fly four or five times a week, I had to wonder how I would have held-up in a seat on US Airways flight 1549. I'm sure every road warrior has given some thought to that last week.

The picture you see above is one of thousands of similar images I've made from a window seat over the years, but it's one that I made a bit more consciously than others. It's titled, somewhat sardonically, "The Last Flight Of Pan Am 759," and I made it, not coincidentally, while aboard Pan American flight #759. For those of you who may remember the incident, PA759 crashed in the Gulf of Mexico in 1984. No, I wasn't on the flight that crashed. I flew PA759 three weeks later!

I've always wondered why Pan American didn't retire that flight number after the crash, and I'm wondering if US Airways will retire the number 1549? Wouldn't that make sense?
--
Above: Nikon F3HP, 28mm/f2.8 Nikkor lens, Kodachrome 25 film