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

U.S. scheduled airlines have gone three years out of four without suffering a fatal accident, the last coming in February 2009, when the crash of a <a href="?q=node/19737">Colgan Air Bombardier Q400 outside Buffalo killed 50</a>. Preliminary statistics released by the NTSB on April 20 show that scheduled Part 121 airlines recorded 26 accidents last year all told. Part 135 commuters experienced six accidents in 2010, none of which proved fatal.
Of the three non-scheduled Part 121 accidents last year, one–the September crash of a UPS Boeing 747-400 shortly after takeoff from Dubai International Airport–involved fatalities. Both pilots died in that crash.
Meanwhile, the investigation into the far deadlier <a href="?q=node/21521">June 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447 in the South Atlantic</a> took a disappointing turn last week, when after locating the chassis of the flight data recorder from the <a href="?q=node/21521">A330-200 on the sea bottom</a>, investigators found the device's crash survivable memory unit missing.
However, the French BEA (Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses) continued its search over the weekend, and yesterday found the component in the nearby debris field. The agency plans this week to transport the unit to Paris for analysis.
All 228 passengers and crew on flight died when the airplane crashed into the ocean during a violent storm.

No Fatalities Among U.S. Scheduled Flights in Three of Four Years, Air France Search Turns Up FDR

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