Joe Sharkey
Encyclopedia
Joe Sharkey is an American author and columnist
for the New York Times. His columns focus mostly on business travel
, while his non-fiction books focus on criminality. Sharkey also co-authored a novel. He has been the Assistant National Editor for the Wall Street Journal, the City Editor for the Albany Times-Union
, and a columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer
. Formally residing in the New York area
, he and his wife live in Tucson, Arizona.
providers began covering costs for in-hospital mental health
treatment. He traces soaring mental health
costs to the often criminal marketing practices of biological psychiatry
, which Sharkey asserts began when the number of psychiatric hospital
s boomed in the late 1980s. He provides anecdotal tales of people coerced into treatment on fabricated pretenses, and compares schemes to fill beds at for-profit mental and addiction
facilities, which were offering bounties to clergy, teachers, police and "crisis counselors," to the business plan
of the Holiday Inn
hotel chain.
The psychiatric industry, warned Sharkey (whose late father-in-law was a respected psychiatrist involved in setting up non-profit mental health clinics during the 1980s in New York
state) has been lobbying legislatures for an increasing share of government health spending. Despite such warnings by Sharkey and mental health watchdogs, similar practices have continued to evolve in Texas
(where many of the events depicted in Bedlam took place), in the form of the Texas Medication Algorithm Project
, and at the federal level with the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health
.
Another of Sharkey's books is Above Suspicion, the story of FBI agent Mark Putnam
, who murdered his mistress in an eastern Kentucky
mining town. In Suspicio, Sharkey implicitly condemns the FBI for encouraging the use of paid informants. "Above Suspicion" has been optioned by Reese Witherspoon
's Type A Productions to be made into a feature film. His book Deadly Greed explores the sensational 1989 Boston killing, in which Charles Stuart
fatally shot his pregnant wife Carol and caused racial tensions by accusing a black man of the crime.
Sharkey has also co-authored a novel, Lady Gold, with former New York Police Department detective Angela Amato
. The movie rights for the book were purchased by Paramount Pictures
and was in development by Mel Gibson
's production company, Icon.
business jet involved in the crash of Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907
, using a Boeing
737-800
, on September 29, 2006. The private jet lost a wing tip and part of its tail, but landed safely in a Brazilian military air base located in the Amazon jungle. The Embraer Legacy
jet was owned and operated by ExcelAire Service Inc., a charter company headquartered in Ronkonkoma, New York
. All 148 passengers and six crew members aboard the Gol Airlines Flight 1907 perished. The Legacy jet was on its maiden flight from Embraer's headquarters in São José dos Campos
, near São Paulo
, to the United States
. Sharkey was on a freelance assignment in Brazil for Business Jet Traveler
, a business magazine specializing in corporate aviation. Sharkey said the Legacy jet stabilized after the apparent collision, until it landed at the Serra do Cachimbo
airbase in the state of Pará
. In a New York Times front page article titled "Colliding With Death at 37,000 Feet, and Living", filed on October 1, 2006, Sharkey reported:
During an interview with NBC
's Today Show on October 5, 2006, Sharkey said he was relaxing in his cabin seat with the window shade down when he was jolted by a bang. "It was more like a car that hits a pothole rather than 'boom!'" he said. The plane steadied itself and it became serenely silent again. It was only when Sharkey opened the shade and looked out his window that he noticed something was dreadfully amiss. "My heart just sank because I looked at the wing tip and I saw that it was shorn off,” he told Today host Matt Lauer
. "Basically four feet of the wingtip, the part that curves up, the winglet, gone... I’ve flown a lot, and I’m thinking, 'This is definitely, definitely not good.'"
The pilots, Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino, were composed and focused, like "infantrymen who were well trained." Still, Sharkey and the other passengers, despite an uneasy calm, grew concerned. "It was very serene," Sharkey said. "At first it was just quiet and grimly concern." An engineer on board noticed the damaged wing was starting to peel, and Sharkey said it was then that everyone on board started to think about dying. "That’s the point in which it was clear that one way or another we were going down in unpleasant circumstances, and probably, since we couldn’t find a runway, we were going to ditch."
Sharkey scribbled a quick note to his wife, "I expressed my love, my appreciation and the fact that I accepted death." He put the note in his wallet, thinking it might eventually be found. "And then I thought … it was almost bizarre … Is this going to hurt? And how badly is it going to hurt?" The pilots eventually spotted a remote military airstrip and safely put the plane down. Sharkey said that when he found out, several hours later, that the Legacy jet hit a commercial airliner, he thought "We should not be the ones walking away from this." Asked, at the end of the interview, about the pilots who saved his life, he said: "I think we need to be careful about how the evidence is evaluated, because I think these guys are in some peril."
The NTSB released results of a preliminary analysis of the Legacy's flight data and cockpit voice recorder
showing that the Legacy pilots had tried to contact air traffic control at least fifteen times in the thirty minutes prior the collision without success.
On his blog, “Joe Sharkey at Large”, Sharkey wrote about his experience and of being held for 36 hours for interrogation after the forced landing, his views on the ongoing investigation, and the public response against him and others aboard the Legacy jet. In response to Sharkey's questioning of Brazil's air traffic control infrastructure, Waldir Pires
, the Brazil
ian Defense Minister stated:
Pires was later fired for his handling of the 2006–2007 Brazilian aviation crisis
.
In 2008, Sharkey was sued before a Brazilian Court for an article in the New York Times. The widow of one of the victims claimed the article (in which Sharkey blamed the crash on incapable air operators) defamed the Brazilian people and consequently her personal dignity.
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
for the New York Times. His columns focus mostly on business travel
Business travel
Business travel is the practice of people traveling for purposes related to their work. It is on the rise especially with foreign business markets opening up...
, while his non-fiction books focus on criminality. Sharkey also co-authored a novel. He has been the Assistant National Editor for the Wall Street Journal, the City Editor for the Albany Times-Union
Albany Times-Union
The Times Union is a major daily newspaper, serving the Capital Region of New York, United States. Although the newspaper focuses on Albany and its suburbs, it covers all parts of the four-county area, including the cities of Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Springs. It is owned by the Hearst...
, and a columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
. Formally residing in the New York area
New York metropolitan area
The New York metropolitan area, also known as Greater New York, or the Tri-State area, is the region that composes of New York City and the surrounding region...
, he and his wife live in Tucson, Arizona.
Books
Sharkey's 1994 book Bedlam: Greed, Profiteering, and Fraud in a Mental Health System Gone Crazy is an investigation of the psychiatric industry. Focusing on sensational cases in the United States, Sharkey exposed how powerful elements within the industry maneuvered to exploit new markets when health insuranceHealth insurance
Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is...
providers began covering costs for in-hospital mental health
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
treatment. He traces soaring mental health
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
costs to the often criminal marketing practices of biological psychiatry
Biological psychiatry
Biological psychiatry, or biopsychiatry is an approach to psychiatry that aims to understand mental disorder in terms of the biological function of the nervous system. It is interdisciplinary in its approach and draws on sciences such as neuroscience, psychopharmacology, biochemistry, genetics and...
, which Sharkey asserts began when the number of psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
s boomed in the late 1980s. He provides anecdotal tales of people coerced into treatment on fabricated pretenses, and compares schemes to fill beds at for-profit mental and addiction
Substance dependence
The section about substance dependence in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not use the word addiction at all. It explains:...
facilities, which were offering bounties to clergy, teachers, police and "crisis counselors," to the business plan
Business plan
A business plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals....
of the Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn is a brand of hotels, formally a economy motel chain, forming part of the British InterContinental Hotels Group . It is one of the world's largest hotel chains with 238,440 bedrooms and 1,301 hotels globally. There are currently 5 hotels in the pipeline...
hotel chain.
The psychiatric industry, warned Sharkey (whose late father-in-law was a respected psychiatrist involved in setting up non-profit mental health clinics during the 1980s in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
state) has been lobbying legislatures for an increasing share of government health spending. Despite such warnings by Sharkey and mental health watchdogs, similar practices have continued to evolve in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
(where many of the events depicted in Bedlam took place), in the form of the Texas Medication Algorithm Project
Texas Medication Algorithm Project
The Texas Medication Algorithm Project is a decision-tree medical algorithm, the design of which was based on the expert opinions of mental health specialists. It has provided and rolled out a set of psychiatric management guidelines for doctors treating certain mental disorders within Texas'...
, and at the federal level with the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health
New Freedom Commission on Mental Health
The controversial New Freedom Commission on Mental Health was established by U.S. President George W. Bush in April 2002 to conduct a comprehensive study of the U.S. mental health service delivery system and make recommendations based on its findings...
.
Another of Sharkey's books is Above Suspicion, the story of FBI agent Mark Putnam
Mark Putnam
Mark Putnam is the 21st president of Central College, a liberal arts college located in Pella, Iowa, a community of 10,000 and rooted in Christian and Dutch heritage. He was appointed to the role July 1, 2010, and inauguration ceremonies were Oct. 22, 2010...
, who murdered his mistress in an eastern Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
mining town. In Suspicio, Sharkey implicitly condemns the FBI for encouraging the use of paid informants. "Above Suspicion" has been optioned by Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon , better known as Reese Witherspoon, is an American actress and film producer. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the film The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower...
's Type A Productions to be made into a feature film. His book Deadly Greed explores the sensational 1989 Boston killing, in which Charles Stuart
Charles Stuart (murderer)
Charles "Chuck" Stuart was a man from Reading, Massachusetts who murdered his pregnant wife and inflamed racial tensions in the Boston area by concocting a fictitious African-American assailant.-Murders:...
fatally shot his pregnant wife Carol and caused racial tensions by accusing a black man of the crime.
Sharkey has also co-authored a novel, Lady Gold, with former New York Police Department detective Angela Amato
Angela Amato
Angela Amato is an Italian violinist who has worked with such major musicians as Tibor Varga, Igor Oistrach, Emanuel Hurwitz, Eiluned Davies and Beatrice Antonioni. As a soloist she has performed in Europe and Italy in the most renowned concert halls, recording for Italian National Radio and TV,...
. The movie rights for the book were purchased by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
and was in development by Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson
Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
's production company, Icon.
Airline crash
Joe Sharkey was one of seven people aboard an Embraer LegacyEmbraer Legacy
|-See also:-External links:* * * *...
business jet involved in the crash of Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907
Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907
Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 was a Boeing 737-8EH, registration PR-GTD, on a scheduled passenger flight from Manaus, Brazil, to Rio de Janeiro. On 29 September 2006, just before 17:00 BRT, it collided in midair with an Embraer Legacy business jet over the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso...
, using a Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
737-800
Boeing 737
The Boeing 737 is a short- to medium-range, twin-engine narrow-body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has developed into a family of nine passenger models with a capacity of 85 to 215 passengers...
, on September 29, 2006. The private jet lost a wing tip and part of its tail, but landed safely in a Brazilian military air base located in the Amazon jungle. The Embraer Legacy
Embraer Legacy
|-See also:-External links:* * * *...
jet was owned and operated by ExcelAire Service Inc., a charter company headquartered in Ronkonkoma, New York
Ronkonkoma, New York
Ronkonkoma is a census-designated place on Long Island in the Town of Islip, Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 20,029 at the 2000 census...
. All 148 passengers and six crew members aboard the Gol Airlines Flight 1907 perished. The Legacy jet was on its maiden flight from Embraer's headquarters in São José dos Campos
São José dos Campos
São José dos Campos is a municipality and a major city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil and one of the most important industrial and research centers in Latin America. It is located in the Paraíba Valley, between the two most active production and consumption regions in the country, São Paulo ...
, near São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Sharkey was on a freelance assignment in Brazil for Business Jet Traveler
Business Jet Traveler
Business Jet Traveler magazine is written for executives and high net worth individuals who regularly fly aboard private jets. Unlike "lifestyle" publications, Business Jet Traveler is a business publication containing articles on taxes, law and finance, new jet previews and CEO interviews, with...
, a business magazine specializing in corporate aviation. Sharkey said the Legacy jet stabilized after the apparent collision, until it landed at the Serra do Cachimbo
Campo de Provas Brigadeiro Velloso
Campo de Provas Brigadeiro Velloso – CPBV is a large complex of the Brazilian Armed Forces located in Serra do Cachimbo , in the southern part of Pará, Brazil. The complex includes the Cachimbo Airport operated by the Brazilian Air Force...
airbase in the state of Pará
Pará
Pará is a state in the north of Brazil. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest it also borders Guyana and Suriname, and to the northeast it borders the Atlantic Ocean. The capital is Belém.Pará is the most populous state...
. In a New York Times front page article titled "Colliding With Death at 37,000 Feet, and Living", filed on October 1, 2006, Sharkey reported:
And it had been a nice ride. Minutes before we were hit, I had wandered up to the cockpit to chat with the pilots, who said the plane was flying beautifully. I saw the readout that showed our altitude: 37,000 feet. I returned to my seat. Minutes later came the strike (it sheared off part of the plane’s tail, too, we later learned).
During an interview with NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Today Show on October 5, 2006, Sharkey said he was relaxing in his cabin seat with the window shade down when he was jolted by a bang. "It was more like a car that hits a pothole rather than 'boom!'" he said. The plane steadied itself and it became serenely silent again. It was only when Sharkey opened the shade and looked out his window that he noticed something was dreadfully amiss. "My heart just sank because I looked at the wing tip and I saw that it was shorn off,” he told Today host Matt Lauer
Matt Lauer
Matthew Todd "Matt" Lauer . is an American television journalist best known as the host of NBC's The Today Show since 1997. He was previously a news anchor in New York and a local talk-show host in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence and Richmond...
. "Basically four feet of the wingtip, the part that curves up, the winglet, gone... I’ve flown a lot, and I’m thinking, 'This is definitely, definitely not good.'"
The pilots, Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino, were composed and focused, like "infantrymen who were well trained." Still, Sharkey and the other passengers, despite an uneasy calm, grew concerned. "It was very serene," Sharkey said. "At first it was just quiet and grimly concern." An engineer on board noticed the damaged wing was starting to peel, and Sharkey said it was then that everyone on board started to think about dying. "That’s the point in which it was clear that one way or another we were going down in unpleasant circumstances, and probably, since we couldn’t find a runway, we were going to ditch."
Sharkey scribbled a quick note to his wife, "I expressed my love, my appreciation and the fact that I accepted death." He put the note in his wallet, thinking it might eventually be found. "And then I thought … it was almost bizarre … Is this going to hurt? And how badly is it going to hurt?" The pilots eventually spotted a remote military airstrip and safely put the plane down. Sharkey said that when he found out, several hours later, that the Legacy jet hit a commercial airliner, he thought "We should not be the ones walking away from this." Asked, at the end of the interview, about the pilots who saved his life, he said: "I think we need to be careful about how the evidence is evaluated, because I think these guys are in some peril."
The NTSB released results of a preliminary analysis of the Legacy's flight data and cockpit voice recorder
Cockpit voice recorder
A cockpit voice recorder , often referred to as a "black box", is a flight recorder used to record the audio environment in the flight deck of an aircraft for the purpose of investigation of accidents and incidents...
showing that the Legacy pilots had tried to contact air traffic control at least fifteen times in the thirty minutes prior the collision without success.
On his blog, “Joe Sharkey at Large”, Sharkey wrote about his experience and of being held for 36 hours for interrogation after the forced landing, his views on the ongoing investigation, and the public response against him and others aboard the Legacy jet. In response to Sharkey's questioning of Brazil's air traffic control infrastructure, Waldir Pires
Waldir Pires
Francisco Waldir Pires de Sousa is a politician of Brazil. He is the former Minister of Defence for President Luis Ignácio "Lula" da Silva, fired due to gross incompetence and inaction during Brazil's aviation crisis of 2006-2007. At the time of the crisis, he was accused by some in Brazil of...
, the Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian Defense Minister stated:
"I cannot anticipate testimonyTestimonyIn law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. All testimonies should be well thought out and truthful. It was the custom in Ancient Rome for the men to place their right hand on a Bible when taking an oath...
that may be given, for example, by this [Joe Sharkey] in the United States. It is evident, it seems to me that his personality is a little frivolous, because with the number [of accidents] we have and the statements he makes, it [(Sharkey's statement)] is something absolutely inadequate."
Pires was later fired for his handling of the 2006–2007 Brazilian aviation crisis
2006–2007 Brazilian aviation crisis
The 2006–2007 Brazilian aviation crisis was a crisis in Brazil's civil aviation system characterized by massive flight delays and cancellations, air traffic controller strikes and safety concerns about Brazil's airport and air traffic infrastructure. It ostensibly started after the crash of Gol...
.
In 2008, Sharkey was sued before a Brazilian Court for an article in the New York Times. The widow of one of the victims claimed the article (in which Sharkey blamed the crash on incapable air operators) defamed the Brazilian people and consequently her personal dignity.
Books
- 1990 (reprint date) Death Sentence: The Inside Story of the John List Murders
- 1991 Deadly Greed: The Riveting True Story of the Stuart Murder Case that Rocked Boston and Shocked the Nation
- 1993 Above Suspicion
- 1994 Bedlam: Greed, Profiteering, and Fraud in a Mental Health System Gone Crazy
- 1998 Lady Gold (with Angela Amato)
External links
- Sharkey's blog post about the Gol 1907 accident's final report
- EquitekCapital.com - 'How to Expand Air Travel Service? Try Offering a Sky Cab', Joe Sharkey New York Times (December 9, 2003)