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Jonee Lynn Helms,
FAA Administrator During The ATC Strike In 1981 Dies At 86 By Mike Mitchell |
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December 14, 2011 - Former Federal Aviation
Administration, Administrator, Jonee Lynn Helms died at
his home in Westport, Connecticut on Sunday of
cardiopulmonary failure and complications from
pneumonia.
Helms was a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer, former
President of Piper Aircraft Corp. and is most recognized
for the years in which he served as Administrator of the
Federal Aviation Administration, as an appointee of
President Ronald Reagan.
In
1974 Helms was elected President and CEO of Piper
Aircraft Corporation, later being named Chairman of the
Board. In 1975 he negotiated with the Vice President of
Brazil to construct a factory and build Piper general
aviation aircraft in Brazil.
In
the 1980 presidential election, The Professional Air
Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) along with the
Teamsters and the Air Line Pilots Association refused to
back President Jimmy Carter, instead endorsing
Republican Party candidate Ronald Reagan.
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On August
3, 1981, the union declared a strike, seeking better working
conditions, better pay and a 32-hour workweek. On August 5,
following the PATCO workers' refusal to return to work, Reagan
fired the 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had
ignored the order, and banned them from federal service for
life.
Helms had
played a decisive role during the air traffic controller?s
strike in which he advised the Reagan White House that air
travel would continue safely if the president chose to crush the
labor protest.
This ban
was later rescinded by President Bill Clinton in 1993. In the
wake of the strike and mass firings the FAA was faced with the
task of hiring and training enough controllers to replace those
that had been fired, a hard problem to fix as at the time it
took three years in normal conditions to train a new controller.
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