Grand Aire Express
Grand Aire Express was an American airline based in Swanton, Ohio, US. It operated passenger and cargo charter services worldwide, as well as charter management services. Its main base began in Monroe, Michigan and then moved to Toledo Express Airport, Toledo, Ohio. with additional bases in Louisville, KY and El Paso, TX. Grand Aire Express closed down/disestablished in June 2003; however, the parent company Grand Aire Inc., is still in operation, providing On-Demand Air Charter and FBO services from their world-headquarters at the Toledo Express Airport in Swanton, Ohio. History. The airline was established  in 1985 by Tahir Cheema. The company originally started out of Detroit Metro Airport in 1985 and quickly expanded from a one-airplane hangar operation to a larger operation in Monroe, MI. After five years based at Monroe, Michigan, Grand Aire Express moved to new corporate headquarters at Toledo Express Airport on 4 January 1999. After winning multiple awards with Air Cargo, Ernst Young Entrepreneurs, the State of Michigan Businesses and Ohio Businesses; Grand Aire Express (GAE) closed down due to the post 9/11 airline and economy fallout. Grand Aire Incorporated, separate from Grand Aire Express, is still in business  as a provider of on-demand air charter services throughout North America which includes time-critical air charters worldwide, passenger air charters, FBO services at Toledo Express Airport, and cargo handling & trucking. Safety Concerns and FAA Oversight. From 1987 until early 1999 the Detroit FAA Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) held oversight responsibility for GAE while the operation was based in Monroe, Michigan. However, when GAE moved its headquarters to Toledo, Ohio (about 20 miles south) in early 1999 the Cleveland Flight Standards District Office took over surveillance of the company. Prior to the company's move to Toledo, GAE  was led to believe by the FAA that the Detroit FSDO would retain oversight responsibilities of the company. After protests by the Cleveland FSDO, oversight was transferred from Detroit to Cleveland. At the beginning of 1999 the Cleveland FSDO began a much more thorough oversight program in comparison to the Detroit FSDO. By the middle of 1999 fines associated with regulatory violations by the company totaled over $750,000. Most of the violations dealt with the mechanical airworthiness of the company's aircraft. GAE began to complain about the close scrutiny they were receiving from the Cleveland FSDO and alleged  this was based on racism because GAE President, Tahir Cheema, was Pakistani. The managers and inspectors at the Cleveland FSDO denied the allegation by Cheema. Walter Moor was one of the FAA Primary Operations Inspector over GAE while the certificate was supervised by the Cleveland FSDO. Moor told Cheema the Cleveland FSDO was simply following the “handbooks and regulations, and their job was to ensure that those requirements were met". Leroy Moore was the FAA manager of the Cleveland FSDO during this time period and stated, that “in Cleveland you had to follow the regulations”. Ken Shauman, was the former  FAA Primary Maintenance Inspector over GAE while the certificate was supervised by the Cleveland FSDO. In April 2001, prior to the transfer of the certificate to the Detroit FSDO, Shauman wrote: “This is not a safe, nor compliant motivated operation. All the indicators and comparison factors, predicting a major catastrophic event in this operator’s future, are glaringly evident”. Cheema in testimony to the NTSB after crash of N183GA stated that "the FAA told him that the certificate would remain at DTW" but once the company moved the FAA moved the certificate to Cleveland. "He said that the Cleveland FAA  was totally different than the Detroit office. He said there was no communication with the FAA; however they kept getting letters of investigation from the FAA. The company had meetings with the FAA trying to work things out. He said he talked to the FSDO manager but was shuned off by her". Regarding the violations found by the Cleveland FSDO, Cheema told the NTSB that in six months the violations totaled over $750,000 and nobody would talk to the company. At that time he was traveling a lot and was not able to respond to the letters within FAA 's deadline of 10 days as he was not at the company. "However, now when he is on the road other management personnel open his mail". Mr. Cheema said at the time Mr. Shauman was the principal maintenance inspector from the Cleveland FSDO. "Following an inspection, he said he asked the PMI before he left if there were any items that he wanted to debried. He would say no, and then return to the FAA office and send a letter of investigation". Mr. Cheema said he could not recall "many operations violations during that time frame". "Since then, FAA regional  personnel had told Mr. Shauman to stay away from Grand Aire." In the same testimony Cheema said "problems were all paperwork errors". He said he went to the FAA in Washington and spoke to the FAA regional flight standards office in Chicago and "asked them to show him a white man's company that was fined like his was". Following that the certificate was moved back to Detroit and the Cleveland FSDO resigned the same week. According to Cheema, the FAA also had conducted an internal security audit on Mr. Schauman. In the same interview the NTSB asked how the  Detroit office was to work with now and Cheema replied, "fair", "the company wanted communication. They did not want the FAA to just come to the company and take notes and go home without telling them anything. That was not the way to get things fixed". By April 2001, oversight of GAE was returned to the Detroit FSDO. John Hogan was another FAA Principle Operation Inspector over GAE while the certificate was supervised by the Cleveland FSDO. When asked about his recollection of the transfer of the GAE certificate, Hogan said Cheema was not happy with the way the Cleveland  FSDO was handling Grand Aire, so Cheema put pressure on the FAA using his “political clout”. Hogan did not think the certificate should have been moved back to Detroit, but he said the FAA Regional headquarters made that decision. Efrain Arroyo was the Detroit FSDO Unit Supervisor and in his testimony to the NTSB he was asked about GAE's moved from Cleveland back to Detroit. Arroyo stated that "he had been briefed and showed a document that explained the move but said he still needed approval of the Regional Manager to release the document to the NTSB board". Grand