Journalist And Pilot Mort Crim Returns To Channel 3

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Mort Crim, one of the most popular broadcasters to ever sit at the Channel 3 anchor desk, returns to the station's airwaves on Saturday, July 21st, 3 to 4 p.m. on Flight Level 74 and Still Climbing, a documentary of his 74 hundred-mile solo flight to celebrate his 74th birthday.

Inspired by the film The Bucket List, Crim set a goal to make the cross-country trip in his Light Sport Airplane for his own bucket list. "Like those two guys in the movie, I have a few things I want to check off before I check out," Crim, who will be 77 on July 31st and is a two-time cancer survivor, quips.

Along the way, viewers get the opportunity to ride along in the cockpit from Jacksonville, Florida to Eugene, Oregon and back while Crim visits 32 airports over 31 days; chats with fellow pilots; re-visits post-Katrina New Orleans; stops over in Eugene to visit his son, Al, and, of special interest to his Philadelphia fans, sets down in Sun City, Nevada to spend time reminiscing with his KYW colleague Vince Leonard. In one particularly nostalgic scene, the two legendary anchormen, do a little mock anchoring from Leonard's living room sofa.

Along with the scenic views the special offers, the journalist turns poetic and offers some thoughts about the state of America from his perspective at 9,500 feet. "Crossing 18 state borders on this flight was a graphic reminder that those lines on maps don't really exist, we created them, just like so many lines that divide us. I've seen a beautiful America as I lived out my personal dream, but I return with a bigger dream, "a dream of Americans erasing the lines that divide us."

CBS 3 (KYW-TV) is part of CBS Television Stations, a division of CBS Corporation.