UNITED STATES OF AMERICA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION OFFICE OF HEARINGS

IN THE MATTER OF: Northeastern Aviation Corporation Respondent Tuesday, April 7, 2015 FDMS No. FAA-2014-0812 1

The teleconference convened, pursuant to notice, at 1:40 p.m. BEFORE: THE HONORABLE J. E. SULLIVAN, Administrative Law Judge

(202) 234-4433 

# RECEIVED APR 222015 

## HEARING DOC;i<E:T



## ORIGINAL

NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERSAND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE., N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.comAPPEARANCES: On Behalf of the Complainant: ZACHARY M. BERMAN, ESQ. of: Office of Regional Counsel, Eastern Region Federal Aviation Administration 1 Aviation Plaza Jamaica, New York 11434 718-553-3258 718-995-5699 fax On Behalf of the Respondent: EDWARD J. LONGOSZ II, ESQ. 2

of: Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC 12th Floor

(202) 234·4433 1717 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20006 202-659-6619

NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com3
1 

### P-R-0-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S 2 

### 1:40 p.m. 3 

### ADMIN. JUDGE SULLIVAN: We're on the 4 record ln the matter of Northeastern Aviation 5 

### Corporation. This is Docket Number FAA-2014- 6 

### 0812. 7 

### Today is Tuesday, April 7, 

### 2015. And 8 

### the parties have convened by telephone for a 9 

### litigation scheduling conference. 10 

### The FAA is representedby its attorney 11 

### of record, Mr. Zachary M. Berman. The 12 Respondent, NortheasternAviationCorporation, is 13 represented by Mr. Edward J. Longosz, II. 14 

### He's not present. And there' s no 15 explanation for his absence. 16 

### I'll note that on January 28, 2015, 17 there was a corrected Order Continuing Rule 16 18 Litigation Scheduling Conference and Setting 19 

### Motion Deadlines. Among other things, the 20 Litigation Scheduling Conference, which had been 21 set for February 10, 2015 at 10:00 a.m., was 22 continued to today's date, April 7, 2015 at 1:30

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1 

### p.m. 2 

### So, Mr. Berman, why don't I turn to 3 you first because there was a Joint Proposed 4 

### Scheduling and Discovery Plan filed in this case 5 

### by the parties on March 26, 2015, 

### pursuant to 6 

### that Court Order, signed by both you and Mr. 7 

### Longosz. 8 

### Do you have any explanation or 9 

### information about why he's not here this 10 

### afternoon? 11 

### MR. BERMAN: No. No, I don't. We 

### 12 haven't discussed the

-- this in the past. 13 And we didn't have any conversations 14 about the conference being on this date. And he 15 

### hasn't contacted me about it. 16 

### ADMIN. JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. I'll 17 note that the Court has not had any contact from 18 Mr. Longosz about his inability to appear today. 19 And the attorney with whom I work, Mr. 20 Cody Smith, advised me before this conference 21 started, that he had called Mr. Longosz' office 22 and left a message reminding him of this

(202) 234-4433 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERSANDTRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE
.. N.W WASHINGTON. D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com5
1 

### conference. But was not able to reach anyone in 2 person. 3 So Mr. Berman, let me offer you some 4 

### options. We can go forward today and set matters 5 

### with the Court making a finding that Mr. Longosz 6 

### has waived participation by his failure to 7 

### appear. 

### s We could alternativelyalso reset this 9 

### matter and give Mr. Longosz an opportunity to 10 

### appear and participate. There is a caveat that 11 

### occurs today that is fairly unusual. 12 

### This Court is located in Washington, 13 

### D.C. and about 20 

### minutes ago we just lost all 14 

### power ln the building. So, we have no 15 electricity, no computers and actually no phone 16 lines. 17 

### So the Court's currently using its 18 cell phone to connect to the conference line. 19 I have reviewed the parties' proposed 20 

### Schedule/Discovery Plan. And I have some 21 

### alternate dates to offer you on some matters 22 because the Court's calendar is not quite being

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### 1 in sync with the parties' calendar. 2 

### If we talk about alternate dates and 3 

### there's a date that you, Mr. Berman can't use or 4 

### is inconvenient to you, I don't have access to my 5 

### calendar to discuss any other dates at this time. 6 

### So, it might be helpful for me to talk 7 

### about the general time period. See what your 8 

### interests are. Or if you prefer, we can just 9 

### continue the matter. 10 

### What's your preference? 11 

### MR. BERMAN: I would prefer it to just 12 continue the matter. Although I'd like to point 13 

### out that according to our Joint Proposed 14 

### Schedule, the discovery would start on May 4. 15 

### So, I 

### would say the sooner we 16 reschedule the better as to make it consistent 17 with the deadlines that we've proposed. 18 

### ADMIN. JUDGE SULLIVAN: Sure. Right. 19 

### Well, let me suggest something to you. I do not 20 have access to my calendar at all because we 21 don't have computer access right now. 22 And so, I'm just thinking, what's your

(202) 234-4433 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE., N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com7 

### 1 availability like next week for example? Do you 2 have a preferred date sometime in the later part 3 

### of next week? Or dates that would be workable 4 for you? 5 Because once we get our computers back 6 and running, I can have Mr. Smith contact both of 7 you and Mr. Longosz by email and just notify you 8 of a new date and time. 9 

### MR. BERMAN: Next week, which would be 10 I would be available at anytime Wednesday, 11 April 15, Thursday, April 16 or Friday, April 17. 12 ADMIN. JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. Why 13 

### don't we do this, and I I usually have a 14 

### fairly good memory of my calendar. And 15 unfortunately that doesn't seem to be working 16 right now. 17 

### Why don't we do this, why don't we 18 

### plan on sometime on April 16, 2015. And just to 19 be

-- just to give you a default setting, what 20 I'll do is I'll tentatively set it for 1:30 p.m. 21 on April 16, 2015. 22

(202) 234-4433 

### And if for some reason I have a

NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERSAND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE., N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com8 1 

### conflict on that date, I'll ask Mr. Smith to let 2 you know. In any event, as soon as our calendars 3 are back up and we have electricity again, I'll 4 

### have him email both you and Mr. Longosz to 5 

### confirm the date and time. 6 

### Would that work for you? 7 

### MR. BERMAN: Yes. 8 

### ADMIN. JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. Just so 9 

### that you know as well, when I was looking at your 10 

### materials and looking at my dates, your current 11 

### proposed Schedule suggests a January 2016 

### date. 12 

### And I was actually looking at the week of April 13 25, 2016. 14 

### And what I will do is, I 

### will 15 basically reserve that whole week for this case 16 until I talk with you and/or Mr. Longosz at the 17 next conference so that it doesn't get pushed out 18 any further then that. 19 

### MR. BERMAN: Okay. 20 

### ADMIN. JUDGE SULLIVAN: And if, you 21 

### know, obviously if you have troubles with that 22 date, that week, we can talk about it at the next

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### conference. 2 MR. BERMAN: Okay. Actually I'm 3 

### looking at I'm looking at I just Googled 4 the Passover Holiday in 2016. 5 

### ADMIN. JUDGE SULLIVAN: Is that during 6 

### that week? 7 

### MR. BERMAN: It comes out unusually 8 

### late next year. 9 

### ADMIN. JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. 10 

### MR. BERMAN: So it's

-- I'll not be 11 

### available that week of April 25. 

### 12 ADMIN. JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay So 13 that's not a good time. 14 

### MR. BERMAN: Right. 15 

### ADMIN. JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. All 

### 16 right. Then we will be talking about a different 17 time. 18 

### I have a trial currently set in New 19 

### York City. It may be one of your cases, April 5 20 through April 7, 2016. 

### 21 Actually it's not one of your cases. 22 It's a different administrativemodality. Excuse

(202) 234-4433 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE., N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com10 

### 1 me. 2 

### But, we'll be talking about a date 3 

### different from the week of April 25. And I'll 4 make a note that that's not going to be workable 5 

### for you. 6 

### MR. BERMAN: Okay. 7 

### ADMIN. JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. I am so 8 

### sorry that this didn't work out. I will look 9 

### forward to talking with you and hopefully with 10 

### Mr. Longosz as well on April 16, 

### 2015, 11 tentatively set at this time for 1:30 p.m. 12 If the time needs to be changed, I'll 13 be sure to let you know. 14 

### MR. BERMAN: Okay, thank you. 15 

### ADMIN. JUDGE SULLIVAN: With that, is 16 there anything else I can take care of for you 17 and your client today? 18 

### MR. BERMAN: No, Judge. 19 

### ADMIN. JUDGE SULLIVAN: Okay. Thank 20 

### you very much. It appears our business is 21 complete. 22

(202) 234-4433 

### we can go off the record.

NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE., N.W WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 

### And I'll

www.nealrgross.com11 

### 1 wish you a good day. 2 

### MR. BERMAN: Thank you and take care. 3 

### ADMIN. JUDGE SULLIVAN: Thank you. 4 Bye, bye. 5 (Whereupon, the above-entitledmatter 6 went off the record at 1:50 p.m.) 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

(202) 234-4433 NEAL R. GROSS COURT REPORTERS AND TRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLAND AVE., NW. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.comA a.m 3:21 able5:1 above-entitled 11 :5 absence3:15 access6:4,20,21 ADMIN3:3 4:16 6:18

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This is to certify that the foregoing transcript

In the matter of: Northeastern Aviation Corporation

Before: 

### us DOT

Date: 04-·07-2015

Place: Teleconference

was duly recorded and accurately transcribed under my direction; further, that said transcript is a true and accurate record of the proceedings.

(202)234-4433 Court Reporter

NEAL R. GROSS COURTREPORTERSANDTRANSCRIBERS 1323 RHODE ISLANDAVE
.. N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005-3701 www.nealrgross.com