The passing on Monday of David Alexander, the chief executive officer at Professional Aviation Services, is a massive loss to the industry, the company’s group operations director has told Freight News.
Gerhard van Zyl said: “I have had the privilege of working with David since he started at the company over 30 years ago.
“He was a professional in his field, and as far as I am concerned, he was the most knowledgeable person in the country when it came to cargo and aviation security. His expertise will be missed.
“He was a family man, the perfect gentleman.”
Principled, meticulous, exceptionally knowledgeable, and passionate are some of the words used by the Freight News team to describe Alexander.
Reflecting on the kind of person he was, Freight Features editor Liesl Venter said: “I often knocked on David’s door – sometimes for comment, many times for clarity or explanation.
“He was never too busy to talk, generously sharing his knowledge and expertise, providing me with much insight. I will remember David not only for his dedication to the cause of dangerous goods handling and training, but also for his genuine warmth and natural sincerity.”
Subeditor Joy Orlek said that Alexander was passionate about spreading his knowledge and was always generous with his time, eager to share his insights for the greater good of the industry.
“As recently as February he warned that the growth in e-commerce was increasingly posing a risk to the airfreight sector, especially in Africa, where compliance with dangerous goods regulations as defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization was low. Through the medium of his training courses, he helped his students to address the complex, complicated, and difficult issues around the movement of dangerous goods by air,” she said.
Freight News editor, Eugene Goddard, said: “I met David during my probationary period as deputy editor at Freight News, then still Freight & Trading Weekly, and almost thought I wasn’t going to make it.
Not only did he reject a first story out of hand, but the follow-up pieces too.
He didn’t ever say why, but I think it was about the tone of my writing and my attempt at trying to put a certain spin on things.
Perhaps he expected a far more pared-down, pointed account of factual information.
More recently he took issue with me over an explicit picture embedded below an online story about violence in the road freight sector.
He accused me of using clickbait, and as with our initial interaction, we left matters by agreeing to disagree.
That’s how I learned to respect him: principled, meticulous, and never afraid to take issue with editorialising.
He had the courage of his convictions and unwaveringly stuck to his guns.
An expert in air safety standards, he probably wouldn’t have liked the use of a metaphor about arms to describe him.
He questioned my style of journalism, and although initially it filled me with indignation, it also made me re-evaluate my writing.
“Thanks David.
“Rest in peace.”
Alexander is survived by his wife Lynn, and children Daryl, Brett and Nicole.
