A multi-engine, instrument rated pilot, James Wynbrandt has been an AIN and Business Jet Traveler contributor since 2003. His in-depth reporting and insightful features have won more than a dozen editorial honors, including two National Business Aviation Association Gold Wing Awards (2019; 2021), and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Barron’s, Fortune, Forbes, and Smithsonian Air &amp; Space. He has flown his Mooney M20K 252 on assignments throughout North and Central America and the Caribbean. Wynbrandt is also the author of Flying High (Wiley &amp; Sons), a biography of Jet Blue founder David Neeleman, as well as histories, references works, and books on a variety of other topics from major publishers. He lives in New York City.

Contributor - Business Aviation

James Wynbrandt

GDC Technics, which filed for bankruptcy in April, faces a showdown between management’s reorganization plan and a court-appointed creditors’ committee, which favors liquidating the completions and MRO company. GDC filed for bankruptcy after Boeing terminated contracts that month for modification and refurbishment work on two Air Force One 747-8s for the U.S. government’s executive fleet. The work includes electrical power upgrades, a communications system, medical facility, and executive interior, according to Boeing.

 


In May, the Fort Worth-based GDC vacated its facility at Port San Antonio and laid off some 250 employees, and in June it filed an emergency motion to obtain $7.4 million in financing for its operations over an 18-week period. The funds “will facilitate a successful reorganization or going-concern sale” of the business, GDC said in the motion, with the cash to come from MAZAV Management, which owns GDC and is headed by GDC’s chairman, Mohammed Alzeer.

 


But the committee of unsecured creditors alleges in federal bankruptcy court that GDC insiders are taking the company’s remaining value for their own benefit at the expense of creditors. As an example, the committee noted that one of GDC’s four principals loaned the company $2.4 million for two weeks a year ago&nbsp;and charged it $480,000, equal to a 520 percent annualized interest rate. The committee contends that liquidating GDC under Chapter 7 bankruptcy would be in the creditors’ best interest.

 


Committee members, appointed by the U.S. trustee charged with overseeing bankruptcies, are TranStar Aircraft Interiors, Agente Technical, PAC Seating Systems, and former GDC engineer Kingslea Stringham. Separately, Stringham has sued GDC, alleging that it failed to give her and other former employees 60 days’ advance notice of their termination as required by federal law.

 


Boeing has taken over GDC’s lease at the Port San Antonio facility and continues the work on the Air Force One jets, and GDC has countersued Boeing, which claims GDC’s delays caused the contract cancellation. GDC blames Boeing’s changes to the project work scope for the missed deadlines. In June, Boeing informed the U.S. Air Force that delivery of the two presidential jets would be delayed a year and would require renegotiation of the contract price.

 


GDC, the former Gore Design Completions, has listed $54.2 million in assets and $55.2 million in debts in its bankruptcy filings. The company was acquired in 2013 by a partnership led by MAZ Aviation and SAAV Completions, the latter owned by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Finance. In a 2019 reorganization, SAAV sold its interest, the Oriole Capital Group of Los Angeles took a stake in the company, and the reconstituted ownership entity was renamed MAZAV Management.

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GDC Technics Faces Liquidation

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