Corporate Crashes -- Executives Avoid Flying Same Plane

NEW YORK - The jet crash that killed six top executives of a Southern supermarket chain is precisely the type of disaster that many companies try hard to avoid.

From corporate America to the White House to organized crime families, there are limits on the number of ranking managers who can travel together.

Even some big airlines try to keep key executives off the same plane. They prohibit members of cockpit crews from eating the same in-flight meals to minimize the impact of any possible food-poisoning.

The reason may seem obvious: If a plane crashes with too many decision-makers on board, a company can be swept into chaos.

"You don't want to put the chairman of the board and your senior executives on one plane," said Domenic Pugliares, president of Aquarius Travel Management, based in Burlington, Mass. "It just doesn't make sense."

Last Wednesday, a corporate jet carrying nine people, including six executives of the Alabama-based Bruno's grocery chain, hit a mountain near Rome, Ga. They all died.

This past September, five executives with Conoco Inc. and four of their spouses died when a company airplane crashed in Malaysia.

In October 1989, three top gambling executives from developer Donald Trump's organization died when their helicopter crashed between New York and Atlantic City, N.J.

But several corporations say that they take steps to avoid these catastrophes.

At Quaker Oats Co., for example, Chairman William Smithburg and Executive Vice President Philip Marineau cannot fly together.

"In addition, no more than five members of the board of directors can fly together," Quaker Oats spokesman Ron Bottrell said.

At General Motors Corp., Chairman Robert Stempel and President Lloyd Reuss don't fly the same plane. No more than half of the key managers of any one executive group at GM can fly together.

Those policies "essentially ensure that in the event there were such a thing, God forbid, as an airplane crash that the company could continue to operate. Not all of the key people would be lost in that kind of tragedy," GM spokesman John Maciarz said.

Such rules are not confined to corporations.

President Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle never fly together, even if attending the same event.

During the president's State of the Union address, one Cabinet member is always kept in an undisclosed location, ready to assume control of government in the event of a successful attack or disaster that incapacitates the chief.

In organized crime there is also a fear of having too many important people in one place. Mobsters are trying to avoid federal wiretaps and attempted rubouts, said author Carl Sifakis, a Mafia historian.

"What you're supposed to do is the capo talks to the underboss and the underboss talks to the boss," Sifakis said. "They don't get together. This protects them from collusion on the case. They don't travel too much together, because they're worried about being killed together."

At Aquarius, Pugliares learns the travel policies of corporate clients, then keeps top executives on computer files that will warn agents if too many are about to get on one flight.

Even airlines can worry about putting too many honchos on one plane.

American Airlines, the nation's largest carrier, does not want Chairman Robert Crandall and executive vice presidents Donald Carty and Robert Baker all on the same flight.