I believe this was Pan Am's last operation of this aircraft and that it was being flown on a ferry flight to United Airlines at San Francisco because United had bought Pan Am's Pacific routes and certain aircraft types to service those routes. I never saw another Pan Am Boeing 747-SP at Miami again after this flight departed. I was on duty years before when the first Pan Am B747SP had arrived at Miami and we parked it on gate E-8, a ground load gate requiring a stair truck.

Ironically in 1981 I flew on this aircraft, emblazoned with the "Flight 50" sticker, from Los Angeles non-stop to Auckland, New Zealand, and then several days later from Auckland, New Zealand to Sydney, Australia and then on to Los Angeles.