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

An ATR 72-201 operated by Russian regional airline UTair crashed this morning shortly after taking off from Tyumen in Western Siberia, killing at least 31 of the 43 occupants, including the entire four-person crew. Flight 120 came down in a snow-covered field near the town of Korkovka at around 7:50 a.m. local time, minutes after taking off for a 400-mile flight to the oil town of Surgut. The 12 reported survivors remain in critical condition in a nearby hospital.


ATR originally delivered the 68-seat turboprop, registered as VP-BYZ and identified as Serial Number 332, from its Toulouse, France, production line in October 1992. UTair had operated the aircraft since August 2008.


The Russian Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) will lead the investigation and serve as the official source of information, said ATR in a statement. According to international regulations, ATR will advise the French Bureau d'Enquêtes et Analyses (BEA), the safety investigation authority representing the state of the aircraft manufacturer.


Although ATR said the circumstances of the accident remain undetermined, local reports indicate that the crew tried to execute an emergency landing after a mechanical failure of some sort. Witnesses reportedly saw smoke emanating from at least one of the airplane’s engines just before it crashed.

UTair ATR Crashes in Siberia, At Least 31 Dead

A UTair ATR 72 crashed in Western Siberia on April 2.

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