The Pan Am flight attendant and the CIA man who fell in love on an airplane
(CNN) — In
September 1970 Jocelyne Nowaski was working as chief flight attendant
on a Pan American World Airways flight from Paris to New York when her
life changed forever.
In
her two years at Pan Am the 23-year-old had made friends across the
globe, served celebrities including Beatle Ringo Starr and featured with
her coworkers in the pages of Paris Match magazine.
Pan
Am layovers were spent exploring Morocco, on safaris in Nairobi,
galloping on horseback on the beaches of Barbados, swimming in Liberia,
and browsing the jewelry stalls of Beirut.
As
she recalls it, her career happened almost by accident. Jocelyne had
majored in biology at New York City's College of Mount St. Vincent,
intending to become a doctor.
But
right before graduation, a friend knocked on her dorm room and told her
the luxury airline was interviewing for flight crew at its famous
Manhattan skyscraper.
Her friend insisted they should both try out, for a laugh.
"Why
not?" agreed Jocelyne. She found herself recalling the glossy
commercials: "Your Pan Am stewardess knows her way around the world like
you know your way around the block."
To
become a Pan Am flight attendant, candidates needed a college degree,
and to speak a second language. Jocelyne's mother was French-Canadian,
so she ticked both boxes.
She
was hired -- her friend wasn't -- and within weeks of graduating,
followed by rigorous training, Jocelyne was working her first trip
aboard a Boeing 727 to Nassau, in the Bahamas.
Jocelyne never became a doctor and never looked back.
"It was the best job," she tells CNN Travel today. "It wasn't a job; it was a labor of love."
In
September 1970, love was the last thing on Jocelyne's mind. She'd ended
a relationship with a pilot six months previously, and she was having a
blast exploring the world with her girlfriends. Her focus was on her
career.
That fall, increased worries about airplane hijackings following the events of September 6, 1970 led to plans for a formalized air security program.
In the interim, fire-arm qualified individuals from organizations like the CIA and FBI were seconded and assigned onto flights.
Traveling
back to JFK from Paris in mid-September, Jocelyne recalls she and her
crew were told that two security officers would be joining them: one in
economy and one in first class.
Jocelyne in her uniform, including her gold wings.
Courtesy Jocelyne Harding
Jocelyne
was heading up the economy cabin as purser, and they were readying for
takeoff. All the passengers had boarded the Boeing 707, a narrow-body
airliner used by Pan Am from 1958.
But
the security officers were late, much to Jocelyne's annoyance. She
rolled her eyes even harder when she learned it was because they'd been
buying Parisian scarves to impress girls back home.
Finally
arriving on board, the economy cabin security officer introduced
himself. His name was Tyler Harding, smartly dressed in a suit and tie, a
tan overcoat over one arm.
Right
away, Jocelyne recalls, she was struck by his charm and good looks, but
she wasn't interested in a relationship and didn't think he was
seriously interested in her.
"I
was working with some Swedish girls and the Swedish girls were
absolutely stunning," she laughs. "I wouldn't even think of competing
against them."
Tyler
took his seat on the second to back row and the aircraft took off,
bidding the Paris lights goodbye and setting off across the Atlantic
Ocean.
Air
marshals are supposed to blend in, so Jocelyne served Tyler as she
would any other passenger, but unlike every other passenger he tried to
strike up a conversation every time she came over.
"He
was very flirty," Jocelyne recalls. "I was not, because I thought: 'Oh,
he's just doing this because he wants to talk to my colleagues.'"
This
suspicion -- plus the scarves -- made her wary. She kept her tone
terse, even teasing him about his drink choice. "He was very pleasant,
in spite of my being snarky," she says.
As
the aircraft started cruising over the ocean, Jocelyne and her
coworkers began their dinner service. Tyler continued to engage her in
conversation whenever she walked by.
Jocelyne
and her Pan Am coworkers enjoyed their layovers in destinations across
the world. Here they are on a safari in Nairobi.
Courtesy Jocelyne Harding
After
she'd served the food, Jocelyne did her usual overview of the cabin.
While walking down the aisles she glanced at Tyler. He wasn't looking at
her at that moment. But she felt herself stop in her tracks, struck
suddenly with a thought: "I wonder what it'll be like to be married to
him?"
She recalls quickly shaking herself out of it. "What are you thinking? You don't even know this man."
But
Jocelyne couldn't explain it, even to herself. In that moment she'd
been struck by this strange certainty that a future with Tyler was not
only likely, but inevitable.
Sometime
later, she was sitting up top of the plane on the jump seat, when Tyler
sat down next to her. At which point he asked her out.
"I don't date passengers," she said. "And you're probably married anyway."
Tyler
pointed out he wasn't exactly a passenger, and when Jocelyne still
looked unimpressed, he fished out his passport, which back then listed
dependents -- or in his case, absence of them.
He was 29, the black print said, and a resident of Alexandria, Virginia.
Jocelyne
was relieved, but still wary about dating someone she barely knew.
Apparently sensing this, Tyler relented and returned to his seat.
As
the airplane approached Long Island, edging closer to New York City, it
was time for Jocelyne to do the last drinks service, carrying a teapot
in one hand and a coffee pot in the other.
She got to Tyler, who requested coffee.
"And
as I'm pouring the coffee in his cup, he looked up at me with those
amazing blue eyes," recalls Jocelyne. "Naturally, I poured the coffee
into his cup. Unfortunately, at the same time I poured tea into his
lap."
Mortified, Jocelyne grabbed cloth napkins from the back of the plane and handed them to him.
Tyler told her not to worry, but was laughing. "Now you have to go out with me," he said.
Blushing, Jocelyne dodged the question and went to confide in her friend Mala, who was the purser in first class.
“As
I'm pouring the coffee in his cup, he looked up at me with those
amazing blue eyes. Naturally, I poured the coffee into his cup.
Unfortunately, at the same time I poured tea into his lap”
Mala
suggested they invite both the flight's security officers to a crew
party she was planning at her Queens apartment after they landed.
Jocelyne
agreed and returned to economy to tell Tyler and hurriedly pass on the
address before making preparations for final descent.
After
landing, she couldn't spot him amid the crowd, and felt disappointed as
she traveled from JFK to Mala's home. He was nowhere to be seen as the
party got into full swing. Then the doorbell rang.
It was Tyler, with his fellow security officer in tow.
"It took my breath away. It really did," says Jocelyne.
Right away, the pair went to the kitchen and started chatting over cocktails.
"I
was leaning against Mala's range with my back to the ring. He was
standing in front of me and we must have talked for about three hours."
The pair discussed their childhoods -- hers in New York and his in California -- their families, dreams, travels, careers.
The
only thing off the table was the true nature of his job -- Tyler
couldn't reveal he worked for the CIA. She found that out later.
Tyler and Jocelyne ignored the hubbub of the party around them, chatting incessantly.
"At the end of the evening, he looked at me, and he said: 'Will you marry me?'"
Her answer, she says, slipped out instinctively, in a moment of clarity and assurance. "I said, 'Yes.'"
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