Administrators at American Eurocopter in Columbus were relieved when they found out Sean O”Keefe, CEO of EADS North America, survived a Monday night plane crash in Alaska that killed five people, including former Sen. Ted Stevens. The group was headed to a remote lodge for a fishing trip.
EADS North America, an aerospace and defense corporation, is the parent company of American Eurocopter, which has supplied the U.S. Army with Lakota light-utility helicopters since June 2006.
“We”re very grateful that Mr. O”Keefe survived, and his son as well,” said Earl Walker, senior director and site manager at the Columbus Eurocopter plant. “Our greatest sympathies go out to those who weren”t as fortunate. Mr. O”Keefe is a fine man. He”s been down here two or three occasions. He stays connected with Mississippi.”
O”Keefe was last in Columbus in March, when Eurocopter celebrated the delivery of its 100th Lakota to the U.S. Army.
The plane crashed into a brush- and rock-covered mountainside sometime Monday night, authorities said. Volunteer pilots were dispatched to the area around 7 p.m. local time after the plane was found to be overdue at its destination, and they came upon the wreckage about a half hour later.
The weather soon took a turn for the worse, with heavy fog, clouds and rain blanketing the area and making it impossible for rescuers to arrive until after daybreak Tuesday. O”Keefe, his son, and two others were flown to the hospital.
Guy Hicks, a spokesman for EADS North America, released a statement from the company”s Arlington, Va., offices on Tuesday.
“It was with a great sense of relief and gratitude that we learned that Sean, and his son, Kevin, survived the aircraft crash in Alaska,” he wrote on the company”s website. “We extend our deepest sympathy to the families of those less fortunate in this terrible accident. We owe a debt of gratitude for the heroic efforts of the members of the rescue crew and others who rushed to the scene. We look forward to Sean”s full recovery and his rapid return to EADS North America.”
Joe Higgins, CEO of the Columbus-Lowndes Development LINK, echoed his relief after keeping a close eye on the news all day.
“When I saw (the crash) come across, it just made me sick to my stomach,” Higgins said. “I don”t know him well, but I know his company, and I know integral and important he is. He”s always been a stand-up guy, a gentleman we like doing business with. I”m just so pleased that he made it.”
O”Keefe, 54, served as secretary of the Navy and as a top aide to Dick Cheney when he was Defense Secretary before being appointed NASA administrator for three tumultuous years. He was deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget when President George W. Bush asked him in late 2001 to head NASA and help bring soaring space station costs under control.
But budget-cutting became secondary when the shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry in 2003.
O”Keefe”s most controversial action at NASA was when he decided to cancel one last repair mission by astronauts to the Hubble Space Telescope. He said the mission was too risky. His successor overturned the decision. The Hubble mission was carried out last year.
O”Keefe left NASA in 2005 to become chancellor of Louisiana State University. He is now the CEO of defense contractor EADS North America and oversees the bid for the hotly contested Air Force refueling jet contract.
The contract competition, which pits EADS against rival plane maker Boeing Co., is for a piece of what could eventually be $100 billion worth of work replacing the military”s fleet of aging tankers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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