On another blog, the writer (a Gen Xer) invited reminiscences of where we were when we learned that Challenger exploded, the loss of the astronauts, and ultimately how we dealt with the discovery that NASA was not infallible in allowing a manned shuttle to launch when it provably should not have. 28 January 1986. Many X-ers posted their early memories, as well as those of us who were Boomers, working and in the adult world, including those who had ties to NASA, Morton Thiokol (the O rings), Lockheed, and other NASA vendors. Ultimately, Challenger had a great effect on us. This article is adapted from my comment there.
On that date, this Editor was nowhere near healthcare. She was in the airline business in advertising. New York Air was a a post-deregulation airline, largely forgotten today, headquartered at LaGuardia Airport NYC. Despite being red in color, it, the people, and her time there remains evergreen in memory.
On that day, we had a small crisis to deal with that had links to Challenger. Permit this short indulgence and diversion, if you would like to read on.
I’m a mid-Boomer so here’s my story which could only have taken place in that wild west period called Airline Deregulation. At the tender age of 30, I was advertising manager of New York Air, part of the Frank Lorenzo combine under Texas Air Corporation but independently operated. That January 28, 1986, we were in the middle of a promotional campaign for our cheeky series of TV and print ads promoting our extra seat room (!) versus the Eastern Air Shuttle and our many general virtues. Our chief ‘demonstrator’, a contortionist named Kedric who in the commercials pointed out how he sat in an Eastern seat, was touring our main airports and hubs doing essentially meet and greets demonstrating his contortionist moves. Managing Kedric was a senior PR director on loan from our sister airline, Continental. He specialized in this type of promotion. (Our staff PR person was more of a government liaison, who was also greatly needed.)
He burst into my office asking where a phone was. That is how I learned that the Challenger had exploded. I had an open desk that day as my assistant manager was on vacation (I shared my LGA office at our HQ (GO) with three others!). He told me what had happened and that we had to pull Kedric off the road, which he took care of as well as the press. I motioned him to the desk, separated by a divider from mine.
No time for shock. I was immediately on the phone with our ad agency to execute the crash policy, which was to pull all our advertising immediately and indefinitely. Airline crash policies at that time were written and attached to every media order. This put the responsibility on the TV station or newspaper. Ours was explicit–I knew every word as the author–and treated space incidents the same as a domestic airline crash. The ad agency was the backup confirmation contacting major media. They were tasked to report to me any exceptions later on and why they happened. I was too busy for some time with internal and external calls to notice what was happening with the CO PR person, over the divider.
It turned out that he had formerly been with NASA and was calling his old friends there. That is how we learned the explosion was fatal and many of the details that weren’t public yet. There was a lot of executive traffic in and out of my office that day.
I do not recall seeing anything until I went home after a long day at Hangar 5. In the office, it was subdued. We went about our work because we had to run an airline. I think I worked on some budgets. Some people went out to the terminal on breaks to watch TV coverage. The only TV at the GO was hooked to a VHS in the executive area and whether it got broadcast stations, I don’t recall.
As to our promotion…resuming an airline promotion in the wake of Challenger wasn’t going to quickly resume. There wasn’t any airline advertising for quite awhile. Our TV, radio, and print resumed a few weeks later when the news diminished. News cycles ran longer then. The campaign went on to win awards. Kedric never went back on that promotional tour. A year later, New York Air was merged into Continental, along with PeopleExpress and the remnants of the original Frontier in what was called “The Big Bang”.
Consequences…Challenger really shook the airline and aviation community because of so many links between the space program, aviation, and military aviation. The above was only one. It damaged a lot of our confidence in NASA as the space missions, other than the Gemini one with the ground fire that killed Gus Grissom, had run safely. Challenger crushed something in our hearts and psyche that day.
Reagan’s speech after the explosion touched our hearts–my mom cried during it. I later became familiar with the Magee poem he quoted through a USAF veteran, Col. William Larkin. And there was an investigation that showed up NASA in an unflattering light.
40 years sometimes feels like nothing. My time at NYA remains so vivid. I remember walking the halls and my many offices there (I was kind of a nomad). The old American Airlines building where I worked is still there, attached to a hangar as it was in 1937 for AA. In memory, I walk through the LGA central terminal, up the ramp, punch in my code (which I don’t remember) to the door at Hangar 5 LGA. I walk down the battered, old hall to my last battered, old office there. My former co-workers are there and next door and down the hall. Yet I was there only 3.5 years. Do I remember the same way places I worked at far longer, like 13+ years, which no longer exists. No, not as vividly.
Editor’s note: The spots from that period are apparently no longer up on YouTube.
Thank you for sharing this personal, touching reminiscence.
Thank you, Steve. Where were you on that day?
Readers–where were you on that day?
My brother was at St. Mary’s Hospital in Passaic, NJ, on rounds with his patients in the psychiatric ward. He didn’t hear about it until he went to the hospital cafeteria. He also mentioned the TV in the doctor’s lounge.