Now that the FAA issued an emergency AD to address fatigue cracking in some 175 Boeing 737 Classics, the question arises: how could have Boeing so wildly miscalculated the interval at which inspections of this particular area of fuselage should occur?
It might takes months before anyone knows for sure, but it seems clear that the April 1 incident in which a five-foot gash opened in a Southwest Airlines 737-300 stands to heighten concerns about the scores of narrowbody and regional jets that have become the workhorses of the air transport industry.
Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with New Jersey Monthly magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for Aviation International News in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.
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