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&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;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&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;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.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

House of Representatives Transportation Committee chairman Rep. Peter DeFazio on Wednesday called for a commitment by FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson to investigate why the agency did not ground the 737 Max when its own analysis performed after the October 2018 crash of Lion Air Flight 610 projected as many as 15 more fatal accidents over the model’s service life if its flight control problem went uncorrected. Speaking during the fifth transportation committee hearing on the twin crashes of the 737 Max that claimed 346 lives, DeFazio further noted that the FAA also reached the conclusion that 99 out of 100 flight crews could comply with the airworthiness directive and successfully react within 10 seconds to the “cacophony” of alarms and alerts recounted in the Lion Air accident&nbsp;report.

 


“Such an assumption we know now was tragically wrong,” he said. “Despite its own calculations, the FAA rolled the dice on the safety of the traveling public and let the Max continue to fly until Boeing could overhaul its MCAS software. Tragically, the FAA’s analysis, which never saw the light of day beyond the closed doors of the FAA and Boeing, was correct.”

 


Following the October 29 crash of the Lion Air Max, the FAA issued an emergency airworthiness directive giving pilots of Boeing 737 Max 8s and Max 9s procedures to follow in the event of runaway horizontal trim caused by faulty angle-of-attack inputs to the airplane’s flight control system. The AD came a day after Boeing issued an operations manual bulletin in response to investigators’ findings that the Lion Air 737 Max 8 that crashed into the Java Sea on October 29 experienced erroneous input from one of the sensors. According to the AD, an analysis performed by Boeing showed the defect could lead to repeated nose-down trim commands of the horizontal stabilizer, thereby compromising aircraft controllability and leading to excessive nose-down attitude, “significant” altitude loss, and, ultimately, a crash. While the directive required a revision to the chapters in the airplane flight manual dedicated to certificate limitations and operating procedures for addressing runaway stabilizer, it did not mention the system implicated in both the Lion Air and March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crashes by name.

 


“The FAA issued an emergency airworthiness directive that purported to inform pilots on how to respond to an erroneous activation of MCAS while actually never mentioning the system by name,” said DeFazio. “In fact, during the certification of the 737 Max Boeing actively pushed the FAA to remove references to MCAS from the flight crew operating manual, as revealed in the emails and instant messages from Boeing executive Mark Forkner.”

 


For his part, Dickson noted that he began his tenure at the FAA after the agency performed the analysis while expressing a desire “to advocate for [his] people.”

 


“The FAA is a data-driven organization...With all due respect, any indication that any level of accidents is acceptable in any analysis is not reflective of the 45,000 dedicated professionals at the FAA...The reason that we have the safest airspace in the world has been through decades of developing data systems and decision-making tools that will allow us to make the best decisions and prioritize in the interest of safety.” &nbsp;

News about significant aircraft accidents and information from accident reports.

FAA Projected MCAS Could Cause 15 More Max Crashes

U.S. authorities concluded that 99 of 100 flight crews could successfully react to MCAS alerts within 10 seconds. 

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

Amy Wilder

News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

Pilot died of cardiac arrest during the flight

NTSB: Pax Safely Lands King Air after Pilot Collapsed

Vehicle also struck parked ground-support tractor; there were no injuries

Teen Driver Breaches Fence, Hits PlaneSense PC-12 at KPSM

News and information on safety procedures and concerns.

Six fatal accidents resulted in 22 fatalities in the quarter

NBAA Report Flags Powerplant, Collision Risks in Q2 Data

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News and issues relating to international air transport and cargo carriers, national airlines and regional airlines, including aircraft, engines, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security and training.

Twenty years ago, a business jet and commerical airliner collided; the smaller airplane survived

Remembering a Solemn Anniversary: the Amazon Midair 

David Jack Kenny

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News and issues regarding all manner of civil and military rotorcraft and their powerplants, including helicopters, tilt rotors and unmanned air vehicles.

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Captain opted out of instrument approach over autopilot concerns

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Helicopter experienced a vertical hop for which the pilot didn’t know the recovery procedure

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