Metropolitan Airport NewsMetropolitan Airport News
  • Airport News
    • Publisher’s Message
    • Fast Five
    • On Duty
    • Air Cargo
    • Airline News
    • Airport Community
    • Airport Employment News
    • Airport Safety & Security
    • Company Spotlight
    • Ground Services
    • Intermodal
    • New York Aviation History
    • Non-Rev Traveler
  • Airport & Aviation Events
  • Airport Employment
  • Latest Issue
  • Login

Subscribe for Updates

Get the latest local airport and aviation news delivered right into your inbox each week!

News Updates
JFKIAT Teams Up With Google Maps to Launch Indoor Live View at JFK Terminal 4

JFKIAT Teams Up With Google Maps to Launch Indoor Live View at JFK Terminal 4

September 25, 2023
TSA explosives detection canine Ben is usually screening passengers at JFK International Airport. Here he takes a much-deserved break from screening passengers.

TSA Canines Enhancing Security at John F. Kennedy International Airport

September 20, 2023
osh Earnest Executive Vice President of Communications and Advertising; Terri Fariello, Executive Vice President of Government Affairs and Global Public Policy

United Announces New Leadership Promotions

September 19, 2023
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Metropolitan Airport NewsMetropolitan Airport News
  • Airport News
    • Publisher’s Message
    • Fast Five
    • On Duty
    • Air Cargo
    • Airline News
    • Airport Community
    • Airport Employment News
    • Airport Safety & Security
    • Company Spotlight
    • Ground Services
    • Intermodal
    • New York Aviation History
    • Non-Rev Traveler
  • Airport & Aviation Events
  • Airport Employment
  • Latest Issue
  • Login
Metropolitan Airport NewsMetropolitan Airport News
Home»Airport News»Stories of 9/11’s Aviation Heroes Inspire “Resiliency” Essay Competition for Today’s Aviation Workers Facing Covid 19 Challenges
Airport News

Stories of 9/11’s Aviation Heroes Inspire “Resiliency” Essay Competition for Today’s Aviation Workers Facing Covid 19 Challenges

Metropolitan Airport NewsBy Metropolitan Airport NewsAugust 24, 2020No Comments4 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email

Next fall it will be twenty years since they came into work at their airports expecting a normal day and found themselves in the middle of a national attack, one in which their industry was used at the means. 

It was their response, the extraordinary way ordinary aviation workers – both airport and airline employees – rose up to the challenges that day and to the loss and pain of the aftermath of 9/11 that made them heroes.

A book that tells the stories of those aviation workers, “Reclaiming the Sky: 9/11 and the Untold Story of the Men and Women Who Kept America Flying,” will serve as a platform for a “resiliency” essay competition to give today’s aviation workers – as well as students studying aviation – a chance to tell how they can apply the lessons of courage from 9/11’s aviation heroes to meet Covid 19’s challenges and help get America flying again.

Reclaiming the Sky stories include profiles of Sue Baer and her Port Authority team at Newark International airport where United Flight 93 departed as they worked to protect 50,000 travelers that day; a profile of a mother, an employee at Boston’s Logan airport, who put her daughter on United Flight 175 yet returned to the airport that evening to comfort other mothers who lost children and stories of the American Airlines flight attendants, colleagues of the crew on Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon, who created charity projects to honor their friends.

“The Covid 19 crisis has had a crushing impact on the aviation industry and on workers,” said Tom Murphy, author of Reclaiming the Sky. “The essay contest will give this generation of airport and airline employees and students a chance to learn from the courage of the 9/11 generation and apply those lessons to help them rise up to meet today’s virus challenges and get our aviation industry moving forward again.”

The essay competition will start January 1, 2021 and run through the summer of 2021 before culminating with the 20th anniversary of 9/11 in September, 2021. The project will be conducted by the Human Resiliency Institute at Fordham University which Murphy founded, and which offers the Edge4Vets program that teaches veterans how to tap their resiliency strengths to get jobs and make successful transitions to civilian life.

Veterans from the Edge4Vets program will help administer the essay competition. Sponsors are being enlisted to provide support, while a website, reclaimingthesky.com, is being updated to provide details on the competition and accept entries.

Entries will be accepted until July 31, 2021 and winners will be determined, then recognized in time for the 20th anniversary of 9/11 in September, 2021.

There will be three categories of essay winners, including divisions for Airport Workers, Airline Employees (Inflight staff,) and Aviation Students. A fourth category is being considered for younger students in elementary, junior high and high school by working with school groups.

Aviation workers profiled in the book are being invited to participate as judges.

An advisory panel of aviation leaders is being recruited to provide guidance for the competition and the awards event at the end. Aviation groups are being enlisted for endorsements. Already Airport Council International – North America’s HR Committee and the Northeast Chapter of AAAE have expressed interest to support awareness creation. Also the program will work with University Aviation Association and its 128 member schools that offer aviation programs to reach out to their students.

The question asked of participants will be this: Tell how you can apply lessons from acts of courage and resiliency shown by aviation employees profiled in “Reclaiming the Sky” to help you overcome Covid 19 challenges and help get aviation moving forward. For those who are aviation students, tell how the heroes’ lessons can help you overcome Covid 19 challenges to become an aviation leader when you enter the industry.

A book fund is being created through sponsor recruitment to make a certain number of books available free to airport and airline workers and students who wish to participate. The more funds raised, the more books will be dispensed. All profits from the sale of the book on Amazon go to support aviation charities.

Full details on the program will be announced at the formal launch of the project in January, 2021. For more information and to become a sponsor for the book fund and support the program administration, contact Tom Murphy at tom@edge4vets.org.

Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email
Metropolitan Airport News
  • Website
  • Facebook
  • X (Twitter)
  • LinkedIn

Produced by a team of aviation professionals and enthusiasts, our mission is to inform and update the more than 68,000 employees who work on the metropolitan New York airport properties, as well as the many others that provide goods and services in the surrounding communities.

RELATED NEWS & UPDATES

The TWA Flight Center Diorama

The TWA Flight Center

September 9, 2023
A uniquely open-air space, the EWR Terminal A Club features several acoustic systems designed to absorb the outside sounds of the airport so guests can enjoy a relaxing setting.

Delta Sky Club’s New Location On Newark’s Terminal A Reflects City’s Industrial Past

August 25, 2023
Sabine Hornig, LaGuardia Vistas, 2020,

LaGuardia Airport Terminal B Earns Earns Gold RHF Accessibility Certification

August 10, 2023
Westchester County Airport (HPN)

Schumer, Gillibrand Announce Over $27 Million In Federal Funding for New York Airports

July 28, 2023
The New Terminal One at JFK

PANYNJ Launches Institute of Concessions to Increase Local Business Participation at JFK Airport

July 27, 2023
The nearly 14,000-square-foot Club seats more than 250 guests and includes sweeping views of the airfield.

JFK’s 2nd Delta Sky Club Steps Into the Spotlight

July 25, 2023
Add A Comment

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

AIRPORT & AVIATION EVENTS
LGA Airport Hiring Event
September 26, 2023
9:00 AM to 1:00 PM
  • LaGuardia Airport-(LGA)
Queens, New York
MWBE Certification Webinar
September 26, 2023
6:00 PM
JFK Airport Hiring Event
September 27, 2023
9:30 AM to 3:00 PM
  • John F. Kennedy International Airport-(JFK)
Jamaica, New York
  • >> More Airport & Aviation Events

Subscribe for Weekly Email Updates

Get the latest local airport news, events, and jobs delivered right into your inbox each week.

Metropolitan Airport News provides timely news, information and updates for both Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ) employees and businesses that provide services at, and around the major New York airports (JFK, LGA, EWR).

John F. Kennedy International Airport
PO Box 300877
Jamaica, NY 11430 USA
Phone: (347) 396-0904
Email Us

Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn Flickr
SEPTEMBER 2023 ISSUE
Metropolitan Airport News - September 2023
LATEST COMMENTS
  • Robert Waldvogel on Long Island MacArthur: New York’s Secondary Airport
  • USN Veteran on Long Island MacArthur: New York’s Secondary Airport
  • Stephen Adams on The Ultimate Airline Employee Incentive
  • Jeff Landgrebe on The Ultimate Airline Employee Incentive
  • About Us
  • Advertising Options
  • Charitable Giving Program
  • Back Issue Archive
  • Contact Us
© 2023 Airport Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.