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

Search-and-rescue crews on Thursday morning found the wreckage of the <a href="http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/2012-05-09/sukhoi-superjet-50-reported-aboard-missing-indonesia">Sukhoi Superjet 100 that went missing</a> a day earlier over mountainous terrain south of Jakarta, Indonesia. The airplane, MSN 95004, had departed Jakarta’s Halim Perdana Kusuma Airport at 2 p.m. local time Wednesday on a demonstration flight for Asian airline executives and local reporters. Officials haven’t released a passenger manifest, and reports of the total occupancy count have ranged from 44 to 50. Search crews have reportedly found several bodies.


A helicopter spotted the shattered remains of the airplane strewn down a cliff near Indonesia’s Mount Salak, some 60 miles south of Jakarta.


Some 20 minutes into the planned 50-minute flight, the crew asked ATC for permission to descend from 10,000 feet to 6,000 feet. Soon afterwards controllers lost radio contact.


The aircraft’s arrival in Indonesia marked the fourth stop in a six-country Asian demonstration tour. It had already visited Pakistan, Kazakhstan and Myanmar and schedules called for it to go to Laos and Vietnam over the next few days.


In a written statement, Superjet International, the Venice, Italy-based Western sales and support entity for the SSJ100, confirmed that the airplane had gone on an earlier demonstration flight on Wednesday without any technical problems.


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Superjet Wreckage Found 

Rescue crews found the wreckage of the Superjet that crashed on Wednesday in Indonesia.

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