About the Author
Recently capping a 35-year communications and public relations career, John Martin McDonald retired from American Airlines as its vice president of corporate communications and public affairs. He is founder of the crisis management communications consultancy Caeli Communications, LLC based in Mesa, Arizona. After graduating from Central Michigan University with a Journalism Degree in 1979, John began his career in radio where he was a general assignment reporter, then news director, at radio stations in Michigan and New Mexico. He started his aviation career as a flight attendant for TWA in 1986. John worked his way up from the front line operations to take his place as director-media relations for the airline. During some of its most tumultuous years, he was the day-to-day spokesman handling CEO resignations, major marketing initiatives, two bankruptcies and one of the most dramatic crashes in aviation history, the explosion of TWA Flight 800, which resulted in the loss of 230 people. Although few realize it, that B-747 crash remains the single largest loss of aviation family lives with more than 50 crew, retirees, employees and family members perishing that fateful July night. He also represented the airline during the crash of Flight 427, an MD-80 that clipped a Cessna 441 on the runway in St. Louis, resulting in two fatalities. John held operational communications roles at TWA, United Airlines, US Airways and American Airlines, the latter two where he served as a corporate officer. From 2000-2010, McDonald served at General Motors Corporate Communications where he supported five business units. During this tenure he was part of the extended core team that managed the largest industrial bankruptcy in U.S. history, and subsequent government loans. John and his wife Pamela spend winters in Mesa, Arizona and summers in Frankfort, Michigan. Their son, Sgt. Sean-David McDonald, serves in the U.S. Army as a third-generation broadcaster and communications professional. Sgt. McDonald and his wife Maria are based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
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