FAA regional chief rose from Long Island roots

In the early 1970s, Carmine Gallo used his spare time to get a pilot's license and later an instrument rating. He went on to be a flight instructor, and by the end of the decade was well on his way to a career in the cockpit as a commercial pilot.

"There I was, preparing to get a job with the airlines. And 1981 happened," Gallo, 57, of Wantagh, said of the year President Ronald Reagan fired 12,000 striking air traffic controllers.

The president's action and its consequences - the Federal Aviation Administration immediately needed replacement controllers - were pivotal in Gallo's life.

"Here I am, trying to hire on with the airlines, with over 4,000 hours of airtime, and the airlines are laying off," said Gallo, who at the time wasn't yet 30. "And I get this package saying, 'You want to be an air traffic controller?' "

Gallo said yes. Nearly 30 years later, he's the administrator and top executive of the FAA's Eastern Region, responsible for its operations in seven East Coast states and Washington, D.C.

The region's two major Air Route Traffic Control Centers, in Ronkonkoma and in Virginia, handle a combined 5.7 million flights a year. The jurisdiction includes 295 public airports and 66 commercial service airports.

Leo Prusak, who manages 290 air traffic controllers in the New York region, has known Gallo for more than 25 years. "He's not the kind of guy to turn his head and walk away when the heat is on," Prusak said. "In New York, you need somebody who is going to stand up tall when there's tough decisions that need to be made."

Gallo, who was appointed to the post in February 2009, recently recalled the career twists that brought him to his post at the FAA.

A native of Massapequa and a graduate of Plainedge High School, Gallo went on to the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. Afterward, he worked as a carpenter and a physical therapist.

But he had an unshakable interest in aviation, and from that stemmed his drive to become a flight instructor, with work as a commercial pilot his ultimate goal.

When the FAA offered to take him on as an air traffic controller, he said he didn't jump at the chance right away. Reagan had fired some of his friends, including one whom Gallo had hired as a flight instructor when Gallo was chief flight instructor at a school based at Republic Airport in Farmingdale.

"I thought about it," Gallo said of taking the job of a fired controller.

He said the friend he had hired as a flight instructor encouraged him to take advantage of the opportunity.

From there it was on to controller school in Oklahoma City and work as a controller at New York area airport towers, including Republic and Kennedy, and as a supervisor at the Terminal Radar Approach Control, or TRACON, facility in Westbury.

Later, he was an FAA manager at LaGuardia and Newark Liberty airports and at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma.

In 1994, the FAA created a task force to deal with traffic-flow management issues at the metropolitan area's airports. Gallo was detailed to FAA headquarters in Queens for 90 days and has remained there since.

These days, as FAA regional administrator, he commutes to the agency's new building near Kennedy Airport to the job he describes as being the East Coast's "eyes on the ground" for Randy Babbitt, the agency's chief administrator based in Washington.

All these years later, his decision after the controllers' strike includes a living legacy. Gallo and his wife, Karen, a retired teacher, have a son, William. He is an air traffic controller.

FAA'S EASTERN REGION

Covers seven states - New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia - as well as Washington, D.C. Headquartered in Jamaica, Queens.

Employs 4,709 in the region, including at two major Air Route Traffic Control Centers, in Ronkonkoma and in Virginia, that handle a combined 5.7 million flights per year. Also has two major Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facilities, in Westbury and in Virginia, that handle 3.7 million aircraft operations per year.

Includes 295 public airports and 66 commercial service airports.

SOURCE: FAA

AVIATION ISSUES AFFECTING LONG ISLAND

FAA Regional Administrator Carmine Gallo weighs in:

Professionalism

When tragic events occur - such as the fatal August 2009 collision over the Hudson River of a helicopter carrying five Italian tourists and a small plane with three people on board - Gallo said he realizes second-guessing will occur. The National Transportation Safety Board identified the actions of a distracted air traffic controller at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport as a contributing factor. The controller, who was on a nonbusiness-related phone call before the crash, and his supervisor, who was out of the control tower running an errand, were suspended after the crash.

In February, in an unrelated event, a controller at Kennedy Airport allowed his two young children to communicate with pilots over an air-traffic-control frequency. He was placed on administrative leave. "It's our job to make certain when the second-guessing starts [that] we're responsive to what needs to change. There's no excuse for not being professional," Gallo said.

Helicopter noise over LI

The FAA is trying to resolve this long-standing issue with new regulations for helicopter operators, including diversion to flight routes that take them over the North Shore. Some helicopter operators have complained that they take routes over land for safety reasons.

Gallo said he couldn't comment on specifics of the proposed rule changes but acknowledged that helicopter pilots have an obligation to operate in a "safe and responsible manner" and having an emergency landing site is part of that. "Water is not a very good option," he said.

Air Force One flyover

The controversial Air Force One photo-op and flyover of New York City in spring 2009 that alarmed residents could have been avoided, Gallo said. Advance notice would have prevented outcry from a public still spooked by 9/11, he said. "If communication had gone a little bit differently with that Air Force One photo, we could have had people out there taking pictures" of the flyover as a special event, Gallo said.