Collision survivor new Excel-Aire president

There is not a day David Rimmer does not think of Sept. 29, 2006.

Rimmer, then executive vice president at Excel-Aire, one of Long Island's largest charter and aircraft-management firms at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma, was one of seven people aboard an Embraer Legacy executive jet flying over the Amazon jungle in Brazil.

The jet had been acquired by ExcelAire and was being flown to Florida. But it collided in midair with a Boeing 737 operated by Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes. The Embraer landed safely and Rimmer and the others on it survived. All 154 aboard the Gol plane died after it broke up and crashed.

"It's still there every day," Rimmer, 50, of Port Washington, said earlier this week. "There's not a day that I don't feel grateful I can still see my family, my kids. I think I have a deeper appreciation of life."

Rimmer has not only survived. He has moved on. Rimmer last week was named president of ExcelAire. He serves under company founder and chief executive Bob Sherry, who started the company in 1985. Sherry said he has no plans to step down. "That's not being discussed," Sherry said. He said Rimmer was promoted because of his "knowledge of the industry. He's also the face of the company, and he does a fantastic job."

The job, for ExcelAire and other such companies, has gotten more difficult since the recession. The company makes aircraft repairs, provides fueling services, maintenance and hangar space for corporate jets. It also sells jets. More companies are saving money these days by renting the jets instead of buying them. They're also driving more and taking trains.

Rimmer said business fell sharply at the beginning of the recession in the fall of 2008.

"We've seen it restored, but there's a lot more pricing pressure," Rimmer said.

Although Rimmer never completely forgets the midair crash -- in which the two Long Island pilots of the Embraer were convicted in May in Brazil and sentenced in absentia for their role in the crash -- he finds himself flying commercially more than ever. "I'm back at it full-time," Rimmer said.