Flight No. 30 Carries the Goodies

The scene looks like a department store's Christmas rush. The floor is piled high with television sets, videocassette recorders, audiocassette players and sewing machines. Nervous energy and thick cigarette smoke swirl through the crowd. On a Saturday evening, these giddy shoppers have converged in front of a check-in counter at New York City's Kennedy Airport, where they will board Pan Am's nonstop to Moscow, the famed Flight 30.

What the medieval silk-and-spice caravans were to Western Europe, Flight 30 is to Soviet consumers today. The few who can afford the 1,762-ruble ($2,800) round-trip ticket gain an opportunity to outfit their homes with otherwise unavailable dream goods. The Soviet government, which officially frowns on such lavish spending of hard currency, limits how many rubles its citizens can change into dollars for their trip (7 rubles, or $11.20, a day). But they manage to raise the cash. A favored scheme is to carry jewelry to sell in the U.S.

The jam-packed Flight 30 is no joyride for the crew. A major headache is carry-on baggage; one man tried to board with two VCRs. Says a flight attendant: "Some of them have so many articles of clothing on, they look like Eskimos."