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Saturday, April 8, 2000

Pan Am sues Bush

From staff and wire reports

PORTSMOUTH - Pan American Airways is suing George W. Bush's presidential campaign, saying it refused to pay for changes made to a plane that the organization had planned to charter.

The airline, based at Pease International Tradeport, filed a suit in U.S. District Court in Concord Thursday accusing the Bush campaign of failing to deposit $155,000 into an escrow account to pay for changes made in January to a Pan Am Boeing 727 the campaign had signed a letter of intent to charter.

The campaign was to lease the plane after the Feb. 1 New Hampshire presidential primary, but did not end up doing so.

Pan Am, according to court records, argues that it paid for the renovations to the aircraft from its own funds with the belief the Bush organization would later release the funds. However, the airline's suit says, the campaign repeatedly refused to release the money from the escrow account.

But Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said the money is in an escrow fund maintained by Pan Am.

"The Bush campaign strongly believes it is entitled to an immediate and full return of our funds and that Pan Am has no legal basis to hold on to any of our funds," he said.

"Our campaign prefers to resolve this matter out of court, in an amicable way," he said.

John Nadolny, Pan Am vice president and general counsel, said yesterday that company policy did not allow him to comment on the suit.

Airline officials told the Portsmouth Herald in late January that the charter would have required a crew of 10 and brought in about $6,000 an hour.

The suit says that Pan Am stopped work on the aircraft on Feb. 9, but by the end of January, the aircraft had already been reconfigured to create a first-class cabin. Had the refurbishment been completed, it would have included 15 special seats and three sofas in the first-class cabin, three work tables and telephones. The main cabin would have been made up of 100 seats for press and campaign workers.

The 727 is called the Clipper Deschappelles and would have been temporarily renamed by the Bush campaign had the charter deal gone through.

The campaign and Pan Am were once on friendlier terms, with the airline allowing the organization to hold a massive Super Bowl-themed campaign party in its Pease hangar in January.