The National Air Transportation (NATA) will bestow two of its highest honors, the William A. “Bill” Ong Memorial Award and the NATA Award for Distinguished Service, during its annual Industry Excellence Awards Dinner, slated for April 21 in Washington, D.C.
Gary Driggers, long-time executive at Midcoast Aviation, has been selected as this year’s recipient for the Ong Memorial Award. Driggers, a former NATA chairman and member of the board of directors, recently retired from Midcoast Aviation after 22 years.
The NATA Award for Distinguished Service will be presented to Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Aviation. Costello, a long-time supporter of the general aviation community, has been in Congress since 1988. Senior Democrat on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the second-ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Science and Technology, Costello is in his third year as chairman of the House Subcommittee on Aviation. He had a prominent role in writing several major pieces of legislation, including the $68 billion bill in the House in 2007 to reauthorize the FAA.
