The “Flying Nanny” Service: Aviation as Social Infrastructure
During the 1960s, Pakistan’s expanding diaspora in the United Kingdom created new mobility patterns. Families were split between academic, medical, and economic pursuits abroad and extended family structures at home. PIA’s informal but well-recognized “Flying Nanny” arrangement allowed infants and unaccompanied minors to travel under cabin crew supervision. In regulatory terms, such an arrangement would be nearly impossible under modern aviation compliance systems. In the early jet age, however, aviation functioned not only as transportation but as a bridge between fragmented households.
The aircraft in question — the Boeing 720B — represented Pakistan’s early embrace of jet propulsion and intercontinental connectivity. PIA was among the first Asian carriers to operate advanced American jetliners, positioning itself as a technologically forward airline in a region still transitioning from propeller fleets. The green uniform, the pillbox cap, and the refined presentation of the crew became visual shorthand for a confident post-colonial state asserting competence on a global stage.
Momi Gul Durrani: Glamour and Professionalism in the Jet Age
Momi Gul Durrani was not merely a cabin crew member; she was one of the most recognizable faces in PIA’s advertising campaigns during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Tall, poised, and photogenic, she embodied the airline’s aspirational identity. Aviation branding at the time blended hospitality with statecraft, and PIA consciously projected its hostesses as ambassadors of modern Pakistan.
According to contemporaneous accounts, Momi’s sister Qandeel Gul (Qandi Gul) was married to the renowned Pakistani musician Sohail Rana, placing Momi within a wider cultural network that intersected aviation, film, and music — a reminder that the 1960s were not merely an aviation boom but a broader cultural high point for Pakistan.
