December 3, 2019 Susan

The Liberty Gazette

December 3, 2019

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Linda: On February 3, 1959, over the Atlantic Ocean from Paris to New York, Pan Am flight 115 had a sudden emergency. I won’t go into details (you can look those up), but as you can imagine, the 119 passengers on board were frightened out of their wits when they dropped suddenly from a cruise altitude of 35,000 feet down to 6,000 in a matter of minutes. You might notice, depending on your age, this was the same day the music died. 

We all know you’re safer in the air than on the ground, and this story has a happy ending. The crew regained control of the airplane, stopped the rapid descent, and made an emergency landing safely in Gander, Newfoundland. 

Among the passengers was a gal named Susan. Now, Susan was 26 and a go-getter. However, this incident threw her for a loop. She refused to fly on the business trips her career demanded of her. She went to a hypnotist, and the treatment was helpful, but Susan needed to conquer her fear, not put it to sleep. You know where this is going. 

The harrowing incident was beyond her control, but her reaction to it wasn’t. So, conquer it, she did. In 1964, Susan learned to fly. And because she was Susan, tenacious, relentless, on-the-move, Susan, she didn’t just learn and quit. She learned, bought an airplane and became the fourth woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. 

Then in 1967, as an American fluent in Russian, she thought she’d fly her Aero Commander 200, named “Chance II,” from New York to Moscow. But the Soviets found nothing interesting about her idea and denied her entry into their air space, grounding her in Denmark, which would have been her final leg on the way to Moscow. You can read her story in her book, “Odyssey: A Daring Transatlantic Journey.” 

But hey, what’s a Russian attempt at insult to a woman like Susan? “Nee-chee-vo” (that’s “nothing” in Russian). 

In 1970, she and her race partner, Margaret Mead (not the anthropologist) won the Powder Puff Derby, and she so impressed the aviation world that Learjet asked if she’d learn to fly a Lear and help market their aircraft. She was a busy woman, so that only lasted a little while, but she did find time to earn her instrument rating, commercial single and multi-engine land, and private pilot glider certificates. She wouldn’t let February 3, 1959 be the day her music died. 

Her fear of flying extinguished, Susan boarded airliners with confidence, which, as I mentioned, was necessary for her career. You might recognize Susan Oliver, highly sought-after actress and director, as "Vina," the lead lady character—“the green girl”—in the first pilot Star Trek episode, “The Menagerie.” She accepted many acting roles, playing opposite all the major male stars, in shows such as Wagon Train, Twilight Zone, and Magnum, P.I. She directed episodes of M*A*S*H and Trapper John, M.D. 

But she also flew. Because she overcame. 

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