What does 75 years at the same job get you? For American Airlines mechanic Azriel “Al” Blackman the answer is an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records and a celebration flight in a company 777. Oh, and that plane just happens to have a bit of extra art at the nose celebrating his achievement, too.
By the #777 that bears his name Al Blackman celebrates 75 years of wrench-turning @AmericanAir @AirlineGeeks #tuesdaytravel #flying pic.twitter.com/gS9LXiohkF
— Christine Negroni (@cnegroni) July 18, 2017
Following a celebration at JFK Airport the company took Blackman and a bunch of other employees and guests for a quick tour of the New York City area.
The @AmericanAir 777-200ER NYC flyover celebrating mechanic Al Blackman's 75 years is live. This is the approx routehttps://t.co/Q7pMZeEm56 pic.twitter.com/u5IQI2toq1
— Jason Rabinowitz (@AirlineFlyer) July 18, 2017
I happen to be in town this week and I’m a sucker for a good fly-by up the Hudson so I headed out to snag a couple shots as well.
The news chopper was pretty close, though obviously further than these images make it appear. Also, hazy day and terrible lighting to work with mid-afternoon.
For his 70th workiversary Blackman got a similar joyride, but on a DC-3. This tribute will last a bit longer as the nose art will remain on the aircraft for a while yet, it appears. Worth noting that Blackman no longer does any real maintenance work on the aircraft. No climbing ladders and no playing with the many tools involved in aircraft maintenance. Plus he has a “crew co-chief” supervising his work. Those pesky FAA rules and all…
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Very nice tribute to him. How old was he when he started there? Amazing to be at one job for 75 years!
Started as an apprentice in High School on a recommendation from his teacher after showing aptitude in metal working. Turning 92 shortly so he would’ve been 16 or 17 when he started, I suppose.
That is pretty awesome he’s worked there that many years. Hopefully he will be treated like a rockstar going forward!
Well, he does have someone follow him around all day. Though that’s mostly due to FAA regulations and needing to ensure that the work he oversees is done correctly, not because he’s a rock star. 😉
The original official callsign on that was Blackie75. Someone realized that might not be the best idea and the FAA switched it to (Bravo Kilo) BK75.
I also noticed that one of the early stories published had “Blackie” as his nickname while all the others changed it to “Al” to clean things up. Whoopsie.
Sad thing is that he probably still has to work at 92. They probably wiped out his pension in one of the bankruptcies, and he still needs the health insurance benefits. Work ’til you drop is the new retirement plan.