and held a Master's degree in Administration and Supervision from New York University. He was a junior
high school teacher before starting a 38-year career with Eastern Air Lines in Jan 1943. Fenello began as a
copilot, rose to captain, and later served as a flight instructor and supervisor of flying before being
promoted in 1963 to Assistant Operations Manager in New York. The following year, he was named
Director of Administration for Flight Operations, with headquarters in Miami. In 1968, Fenello became
Assistant to the Vice President, Operations Group, and in 1972 was promoted to Vice President, Operations
Control. From 1976 until his retirement from Eastern in Feb 1981, he served as Vice President for System
Operations and Safety. Fenello was FAA’s Deputy Administrator for two years and 9 months, resigning
effective May 1, 1984. (See Dec 23, 1983, and Dec 13, 1984.)
Aug 3, 1981: Nearly 12,300 members of the 15,000-member Professional Air Traffic Controllers
Organization (PATCO) went on strike, beginning at 7 a.m., EST, grounding approximately 35 percent of
the nation's 14,200 daily commercial flights. The controllers struck after the failure of eleventh hour
negotiations, which began 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug 2, and continued, with one break, past 2 a.m. Monday, Aug
3. Shortly before 11 a.m. on Aug 3, at an impromptu news conference, President Reagan issued the
strikers a firm ultimatum: return to work within 48 hours or face permanent dismissal. The government
moved swiftly on three fronts -- civil, criminal, and administrative -- to bring the full force of the law to
bear on the strikers. In a series of legal steps, Federal officials:
* Asked the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) to decertify PATCO as the
bargaining agent for the 17,200 controllers and controller staff members.
* Moved to impound the union's $3.5 million strike fund.
* Filed criminal complaints in Federal courts in eleven cities against twenty-two PATCO
officials.
* Sought restraining orders against the strikers in thirty-three courts.
Even before the 7 a.m. walkout, a U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia signed an
order directing the controllers to return to work. Late in the evening on Aug 3, another judge of the same
court found the union in contempt for failing to obey the first order and imposed an accelerating schedule
of fines totaling $4.7 million if the controllers failed to report to work ($250,000 for Tuesday, August 4;
$500,000 for Wednesday; $1 million a day for the next four days). That judge also fined PATCO President
Robert Poli $1,000 a day for each day the strike continued, through Sunday, Aug 9. Approximately 875
controllers returned to work during the 48 hour grace period granted. After expiration of the grace period,
about 11,400 controllers were dismissed. Most of those fired appealed the action, and 440 were eventually
reinstated as a result of their appeals.
The strike and dismissals drastically curtailed FAA’s controller workforce. According to
DOT’s FY1982 annual report, the firings reduced the number of controllers at the full performance or
developmental level from about 16,375 to about 4,200. To keep the airways open, approximately 3,000
ATC supervisory personnel worked at controlling traffic. FAA assigned assistants to support the
controllers, and accelerated the hiring and training of new air traffic personnel. Military controllers arrived
at FAA facilities soon after the strike began, and about 800 were ultimately assigned to the agency. The
combined force was sufficiently large to handle traffic without activating the National Air Traffic Control
Contingency Plan, which called for FAA itself to establish rigid, severely curtailed airline schedules and to
prescribe routes and altitudes.
The day the strike began, FAA adopted Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) 44,
establishing provisions for implementing an interim air traffic control operations plan (see Feb 18,
1982). That plan allowed FAA, among others things, to limit the number of aircraft in the national airspace
system. Hence, on Aug 5, the agency implemented a plan dubbed "Flow Control 50," whereby air carriers
were required to cancel approximately 50 percent of their scheduled peak-hour flights at 22 major airports.
FAA maintained an en route horizontal spacing between aircraft under instrument flight rules of up to 30
miles. Aircraft were kept on the ground, as necessary, to maintain this spacing. FAA gave priority to
medical emergency flights, Presidential flights, flights transporting critical FAA employees, and flights
dictated by military necessity. General aviation flights operated under the severest restrictions. Aircraft
with a gross takeoff weight of 12,500 pounds or less were prohibited from flying under instrument flight
rules; moreover, aircraft flying under visual flight rules were prohibited from entering terminal control
areas. Other general aviation aircraft were served, as conditons permitted, on a first-come-first-served
basis. (See Jul 2, 1981, and Sep 4, 1981.)
Aug 6, 1981: The Civil Aeronautics Board approved acquisition of Continental Airlines by Texas
International
, a subsidiary of Frank Lorenzo's holding company, Texas Air. The transaction was
consumated in Oct 1981. A year later, Lorenzo merged Texas International's operations into those of
the much larger Continental. (See Sep 24, 1983)