group of 110 passengers (107 male, three female), gained Modern Air notoriety. It was organised by John MacDonald, who had been promoted to the role of Modern's Berlin-based Vice President Europe by the time. However, MacDonald acted on his own, without informing Beyer or obtaining the GAC board's prior approval. Despite succeeding in raising the airline's public profile by gaining free worldwide publicity courtesy of the global media's attention, this did not go down well with GAC's owners. Mindful of their main business unit GAC Properties' predominantly older, socially conservative clientele, they did not wish to be associated with such stunts and the controversy generated in many parts of the world. GAC's owners' displeasure at their airline's senior management's failure to uphold its values resulted in Beyer and MacDonald being summoned to GAC's headquarters in Florida, where they were reprimanded for their conduct and where it was made clear to them that their future employment with Modern Air depended on there being no repetition. Transpolar flights The operation of two round-the-world transpolar luxury charter flights in 1968 and 1970, respectively, arguably ranks as Modern Air's greatest achievement. Polar Byrd I On 22 November 1968, the first of these saw CV-990A N5612 Polar Byrd I, which had a special Polar Path Compass (PPC) system fitted for the polar trip, become the first commercial jetliner to land on and take off from the ice runway at the McMurdo Station airfield at Williams Field, McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. This flight commemorated the 40th anniversary of Admiral Richard Byrd's South Pole flight. The special commemorative flight was arranged by Edward C. Bursk, chairman of the Admiral Richard E. Byrd polar research centre in Boston and editor of the Harvard Business Review. He offered 400 wealthy US businessmen the chance to make history by joining this unique mission in support of his fund raising exercise for the Byrd Center. Eventually, 70 US businessmen took up Bursk's offer. They paid $10,000 each to partake in the special, round-the-world trip over both Poles. Flight KV 907 departed Boston on 8 November 1968 with 70 passengers and 10 crew on board. Modern Air's chief pilot (and former Air Force One pilot), Harold L. Neff was in command. The passengers were seated four abreast (two on each side of the aisle) in the former American Airlines first class seats, which Modern Air had acquired together with the aircraft from