culture" and they were more concerned with getting there cheaply than comfortably or even exactly on time. Loftleiðir were not famous for speed or punctuality, but flying with the company became a sort of rite of passage for those young "hippies", one of whom was Bill Clinton, later US President. In fact, when Hillary Clinton, the ex-president's wife and then US Secretary of State and presidential candidate, met with her Icelandic counterpart, Össur Skarphéðinsson, in May 2011, she fondly remembered the role Loftleiðir had played in enabling young Americans to travel to Europe. She still recalled Loftleiðir's sometime slogan from these years: "We are the slowest but the lowest." In order to comply with the then-valid freedoms of the air restrictions, tickets for transatlantic flights were issued in two parts (to/from Iceland, as Loftleiðir, as an Icelandic airline, was allowed to transport passengers only to and from its country of registry), but stopovers were held as short as one hour, with no changing of the aircraft required. Because Loftleiðir had not joined the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which at that time defined the fares for its member airlines on transatlantic routes, it could offer considerably lower ticket prices. Sigurður Helgason, who had joined the board of the airline in 1953, is credited with introducing this strategy. The New York Times called him a "low-cost travel pioneer." Airline co-operations Between 1952 and 1962, Loftleiðir co-operated with the Norwegian airline Braathens SAFE on the transatlantic routes on a codeshare-like basis, as well as maintenance, inspection, overhaul and repairs. When the European focus shifted from Scandinavia to Luxemburg, this partnership was terminated. International Air Bahama, a small airline based in the Bahamas operating transatlantic Boeing 707 jet service between Nassau and Luxembourg, was acquired in 1969 with International Air Bahama subsequently operating stretched Super Douglas DC-8 jetliners on its transatlantic flights. In 1970, Loftleiðir became one of the founding shareholders of Cargolux, along with Luxair and several private investors. Fleet Over the years, the following aircraft types were operated: Accidents and incidents On 13 March 1947, a Loftleiðir Grumman JRF-6B with seven passengers and a pilot crashed immediately after a takeoff on Hvammsfjörður by the town of Búðardalur in Iceland. The pilot and 4 other passengers were rescued by a boat after they got themselves out of the plane. 3 passengers never got out of the plane and went down with it