If you’ve lived long enough, chances are you remember when airports had life insurance vending machines from which passengers could purchase last-minute insurance, right before boarding their flights. The machines were first installed by an insurance underwriting company in 1951. At that time, for every quarter you plugged into the machine, you would receive $5,000 worth of life insurance. The maximum you could initially buy was $25,000 for $1.25, but that eventually increased to $75,000. For your investment, you were insured for accidental loss of life, limb, sight, or other injuries on flights. Pilots’ associations lobbied against the machines for years, after a number of insurance frauds were perpetrated, and they feared that selling insurance in this way encouraged the sabotage of flights. They often cited the case of Jack Gilbert Graham, who purchased life insurance at the Denver airport, then bombed United Airlines Flight 629 that his mother was on by putting an explosive device in a wrapped Christmas gift she carried onboard. The bomb killed all 44 people onboard, with Graham expecting to collect $37,000 ($450,000 today) in life insurance. Graham was arrested, tried, convicted and given the death penalty, which was carried out in 1957. In 1968, the life insurance vending machines were discontinued at many airports, and today there are no U.S. airports that still have them.
