It started out just like any other commute for former Hawaiian Airlines trustee Joshua Gotbaum.
He boarded Amtrak Train 188 from Union Station in Washington, D.C., headed for New York City. But just past a stop in Philadelphia, Gotbaum’s life flashed before his eyes in a matter of seconds.
The train picked up speed and was traveling more than 100 mph, twice the posted 50 mph speed limit, when it failed to negotiate a turn and derailed. Eight of the 243 passengers were killed while more than 200 were injured.
Among those injured in the May 12 crash was Gotbaum, who suffered broken ribs and a concussion.
With one woman flung on top of him from the other side of the aisle and another woman crushed to death in the row behind him, Gotbaum suddenly found himself a victim rather than in a role of authority.
In a previous position, he had been former chief executive officer of The September 11th Fund, a charity established to meet the needs of victims, families and communities after the 2001 terrorists attacks.
And as the trustee who successfully led Hawaiian Airlines through a 26-month bankruptcy from 2003 through 2005, he always had to be mindful of having a disaster plan prepared in case the unspeakable happened.
Now the roles were reversed for Gotbaum.
"All things considered, I’m doing OK," Gotbaum said by phone Friday on his way home from Annapolis, Md., after attending the U.S. Naval Academy graduation and commissioning. "In one sense I was very lucky. I ended up with some broken ribs and a concussion.
"It’s painful but the doctor said it will all heal and take some three weeks. It hurts when I cough, it hurts when I sneeze and it hurts when I laugh. But I consider myself very lucky because the woman in the row behind me was crushed."
The purpose of the Annapolis trip, which was made by car, was to see his nephew commissioned. But attending the ceremony was poignant because a moment of silence was held for Navy midshipman Justin Zemser, a 20-year-old student in his second year at the academy who was killed in the Amtrak crash.
Gotbaum, who has yet to board a train since the accident, was writing emails when his life literally was turned upside down.
"The train was turning and then all of a sudden I realized, ‘holy cow,’ we’re going off the rails and the train fell on its side," Gotbaum recalled. "Airplanes go faster than trains but this one started at 100 miles per hour and it went to zero in a fairly short amount of time. And there were no seatbelts. One minute you’re sitting nicely doing emails and 30 seconds later, you’re on your side in the dark, with what used to be a seat on top of you because it came off the floor."
He said the woman who had been sitting across the aisle from him was in his lap.
"The first thing I said was, "Are you OK?" "And then I said we needed to get us out from under the seats to see if other people were hurt. That is what I was mostly focused on and it wasn’t until several days later that I realized my ribs had been broken."
It was a case of people helping each other, he said.
"What we were mostly trying to do was help people who were the worst hurt," Gotbaum said. "There was a woman whose arm was gashed and bleeding very badly and another woman whose arm was broken. And there was a fire underneath the (railroad) car and we had to get people out of the car. A man climbed up the seat and basically pushed open the emergency exit and we climbed out through the roof and helped other people get out by climbing through the roof."
Gotbaum said while the emergency response workers and fellow passengers were heroes, Amtrak was unprepared and uncoordinated for the disaster at all levels. That surprised Gotbaum, who had dealt with and prepared for disasters.
"All I can say is that no company wants to have a crash or a disaster," he said. "But I will say that if you’re going to experience that, I’d rather the people have the spirit of aloha than what I experienced (from Amtrak’s response)."
Ten years ago, Gotbaum was both praised and criticized for successfully leading Hawaiian Airlines through Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy. He induced investors group RC Aviation LLC, headed by current Hawaiian Chairman Larry Hershfield, to offer a virtually unheard-of 100 percent repayment to unsecured creditors as well as full value to parent company Hawaiian Holdings Inc.’s shareholders.
But he was criticized by some for stretching out the bankruptcy for more than two years when he was earning a salary of $600,000 a year and $10,000 a month for living expenses.
And he drew the wrath of the labor unions who gave $15 million in concessions in early 2003 before the airline filed for Chapter 11 — prior to Gotbaum’s arrival — and then renegotiated union contracts during bankruptcy to keep costs flat.
Shortly after bringing the airline through bankruptcy on June 2, 2005, and after returning to Washington, D.C., Gotbaum filed a motion with federal Bankruptcy Court seeking an $8 million success fee.
Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris ultimately slashed Gotbaum’s success fee compensation to just $250,000.
Upon leaving Hawaiian, Gotbaum oversaw the Obama Administration’s takeover of the Treasury Department and its management of a $700 billion financial rescue plan, and worked for four years as director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the government’s safety net for private-sector pension plans. Gotbaum now is a guest scholar in economic studies at The Brookings Institution.
As he looks back at Hawaiian today, Gotbaum said credit for Hawaiian’s success deserves to be shared by many.
"Victory has many fathers," he said. "I think the way Hawaiian reformed itself in bankruptcy helped it survive in a way that Aloha (Airlines) did not. The fact that Hawaiian survived and Aloha did not made Hawaiian stronger. Hawaiian Airlines was always a high-quality airline and the people at Hawaiian are good. They’ve always been very good. I think I’ve been helpful in making some changes but I think the basic airline was good and remains good."
