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

A statement released today by the French BEA (Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses) on the <a href="?q=node/21373">July 1, 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447</a> indicates that the airplane’s decent into the South Atlantic lasted three minutes, 30 seconds, during which the pilots at the controls maintained nose-up inputs. According to data retrieved from the flight data recorder (FDR), the Airbus A330-200’s angle of attack remained above 35 degrees and the engines continued to operate.
The new information follows a series of <a href="?q=node/29802">media reports</a> indicating pilot error as the primary cause of the crash that claimed the lives of 228 people. The latest findings showed that the composition of the flight crew complied with operator’s procedures, although at the time of the event, the two copilots occupied the cockpit while the captain rested. The captain returned to the cockpit about one-and-a-half minutes after the autopilot disengaged, according to the BEA.
The report also revealed an inconsistency, which lasted for less than one minute, between the speeds displayed on the left side of the cockpit and the integrated standby instrument system (ISIS). After the autopilot disengaged, the airplane climbed to 38,000 feet and the airplane stalled. The last recorded values included a pitch attitude of 16.2 degrees nose-up, a roll angle of 5.3 degrees left and a vertical speed of -10,912 fpm.
“The preliminary information released by the BEA today is consistent with facts published in the BEA preliminary and interim reports,” said the statement. The BEA expects to issue a new interim report in mid-July.

New Details Released On Crash of Air France 447

A statement released today by the French BEA (Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses) on the <link news/single-news-page/article/ntsb-chases-new-leads-in-air-fran

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