Saturday, June 19, 2010
Dear family and friends
John White was one of the best leaders I have ever worked with. I first met John white under rather difficult circumstances. I was a new Systems Engineer for CP Air, responsible for mechanical system on the fleet. I was on the job for less than a year as fresh engineer when we got a call from the ramp. One of the 747’s had another tire failure on take off out of YVR resulting in a lot of broken airplane parts and much unhappiness all around.
John White came down in the ramp truck and picked me and a structures engineer, I think it was Gunnar, to go up to survey the damage. On the way up to the ramp John spoke in the voice he used when the fun was over, he said, “Ken, we just have to stop doing this. Fix those tires” I never needed any further encouragement or reminders. We spend more than a year, changing everything in our tire program, including the introduction of a brand new ( in 1979) inspection program called Holography. CP Air was one of the first international airlines to adopt 100% holographic inspection in the industry.
That was the power of a couple of sentences from John White the Leader and Friend.
John is and will always be a part of my any Leadership skills I may have aquired along the way,
Thank you John!
Ken Goosen
