Bill
DeCota Gave
His Life To Aviation
Aviation Director
of JFK, LGA & EWR, Bill DeCota, died of a heart attack on
Friday, September 11, 2009.
Our immediate reaction upon receiving
the news was utter disbelief and shock at the terrible irony
of Bill dying just eight years after the event that defined
his personal and professional life.
It is my firm belief that Bill
DeCota performed the most impressive job of any Aviation Director
in history.
To many, he came on the scene
just when he was needed, and departed just as suddenly.
He was sitting in a hotel room
in Montreal, Canada on 9/11/01 watching, as everyone else was
watching, the total destruction of everything important to him
as the World Trade Center crumbled to the ground on that infamous
day.
Against almost impossible odds
of grief and despair, with world economies lurching and wrenching,
Bill somehow led and rekindled New York/New Jersey aviation
back from the sputtering brink of extinguishment with a 24/7
effort, which continued unabated until last Friday, when he
was taken from us.
Mr. DeCota was a new style of
airport executive. He came up through the ranks, was highly
visible and always hands on, and he was out there to take the
heat.
Bill DeCota and his Port Authority
team transformed JFK/LGA/EWR steadily during the past few years.
A great example can be found along
the four and six-lane highway called the Van Wyk, which leads
to JFK. A “Miracle Mile” of cargo sheds lines the
main entrance road to JFK International Airport, with Korean
Air, JAL Cargo, United and others emerging from the landscape
like giant, dramatic butlers awaiting their welcomed guests.
Bill DeCota was about new beginnings
and hope when there was very little of that sentiment floating
around.
“Let us rally around the
start of a new season,” he once said, “certain that
we are building our business as partners from expanded and renewed
airports, ready for a future serving the greatest city in the
world."
Bill DeCota, at a time when we
were anxious and frozen with fear, was as welcome as a fresh,
warm, summer breeze off of Jamaica Bay.
The picture here is of Bill in
his World Trade Center office.
The last time I saw him was at
the Newark Public Library earlier this year. He looked a bit
drawn and weary and perhaps a couple of grams heavier.
But his sweet smile and gracious
decency was always in evidence.
Warren Kroeppel Manager of LaGuardia
Airport told ACN/FT:
“Bill DeCota was my boss
but more importantly he also was my friend. He was brilliant
and worked tirelessly for the Port Authority and for the aviation
industry as a whole. He led by inspiration and example as we
all moved through some very tough times. He cared deeply about
his friends and the community and he never lost his humanity,
sense of humor and just plain decency. He will be deeply missed.”
I am convinced that Bill DeCota,
who gave so much to aviation, has joined an ever growing list
of people who died on 9/11/01 in the World Trade Center attacks.
The tragedy has worked like a cancer on many of us, and only
those of us who had to live through it, to pull together those
around us, truly know what a toll it takes mentally and emotionally.
Bill hung on for eight great years, but I personally think it
finally claimed him as a victim.
But Bill will not be remembered
for how he died; he will be remembered for what he did to lift
all those around him while he lived.
In that spirit, the memorial emerging
in lower Manhattan is a place where Bill will always be.
He also continues as a spirit
of the great airport system he left us.
“I live quite simply in
a small flat near Newark Airport,” he told me eight years
ago.
“Sometimes, early in the
morning and also late at night, I like to walk around the facilities
and observe how things are going.
“There is nothing better
than hands-on experience, so I am often at LaGuardia, Kennedy
and Newark, watching, listening and learning,” Bill said.
They should really name a big
airport building like Terminal Four at JFK in honor of Bill
DeCota.
He’s still there, too.
Geoffrey Arend
Donations may be made in memory of Bill DeCota
to the following organization:
Elijah's Promise
211 Livingston Avenue
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
|
|
It
is amazing to me to see the present rate situation in the air cargo
business. For years cargo rating was exempt from antitrust laws through
IATA. 
Envirotainer has developed the training and
quality program to acknowledge those service providers that have been
certified to manage shipments using the Envirotainer container.
Air
Cargo News FlyingTypers leads the way again as the world’s first
air cargo publication to connect the industry to the broadly expanding
and interactive base for social commentary—Twitter.
September
16: Bahrain Air will buy three A320s down
from four originally announced last year, noting international “financial
issues".
