FAA loses track of 119,000 aircraft

[Mark in CA]

The Federal Aviation Administration is missing key information on who owns one-third of the 357,000 private and commercial aircraft in the U.S.

AP Enterprise: FAA loses track of 119,000 aircraft (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101210/ap_on_bi_ge/us_misplaced_planes)

[Mark in CA]

Not sure why moderators moved this. The aircraft involved are private AND COMMERCIAL aircraft, and as a result, next year, the FAA will begin canceling the registration certificates of all 357,000 aircraft and require owners to register anew, a move that is causing grumbling among airlines, banks and leasing companies.

[englishal]

It is no big deal to re-register though. The FAA were talking of a $5 charge for this, though likely it will be about $40.

[IO540]

I don't think any of them have been "lost". It's probably people scrapping planes, etc, and not telling anybody. The old non-expiring CofA made this possible.

[vapilot2004]

This has been going on for some time now. I blame sensationalist media for the story.

[IO540]

Presumably one way to get around that is to have the plane owned by a company, and just transfer ownership of the company.

A lot of Americans have planes owned by a trust company even though they could own them direct - for privacy reasons.

This is widely done in all kinds of areas, though they have stopped it (AFAIK) here in the UK on private houses :) :)

If you don't re-register a plane then isn't the CofA invalid? (I should know that ;) )

[Speedbird48]

This is not at all surprising. The FAA send out a card, about, every 3 years to the last address that they have asking you to "tell them if there have been any changes"???

Duh, if you don't get the card or have died etc. you will not reply, so the FAA is happy keeping your airplane on the register!!

In a past life I bought this to thier attention and was told to go away?? Now it has finally surfaced.

I believe in the UK the maintenace guy sends info' to the CAA at each annual inspection/CofA, whatever they call it these days?? That will account for the flying airplanes, but not for those stored or not annualled/CofA'ed. Although that would be a far more simple thing to fix by a letter than the FAA wanting to de-register everything and start all over??

There are also many US registed airplanes running around the world owned by foreigners, maybe under a trust, and the FAA shows no interest. I looked at a 727-200 that was running around the Middle East and Europe with an all Arab crew running charters with no certificate, and that was ignored as well.

Speedbird 48.

[Sir George Cayley]

Not got anything to do with EASA and third party/third country issues then?

Sir George Cayley

[IO540]

Do you think this is related?

All I could imagine is that as part of some treaty negotiation, the FAA agreed to tighten up on knowing who is doing what.

I do know for a fact the FAA is not happy with trusts which conceal the identity of the owner.

[Fuji Abound]

or anything to do with making out the FAA are a bunch of half wits who cant keep track of their aircraft around the world (erhm Europe) and therefore Europeans cant be trusted to operate N reg aircraft in Europe. Cynical, me?

[IO540]

other government agencies

Hmmm, could well be related...

Doesn't do any harm I suppose. It's made the news over here, distorted as usual.

[IO540]

There is no problem checking the trustee is a US citizen.

It is the real "beneficial owner" ("trustor" in US-speak) who should not be concealed, in the FAA view (I have this from an FAA lawyer).

[englishal]

According to the FAA lawyer who spoke to us earlier this year, they have no intention of removing trusts of a way of owning an N reg for non US citizens. They explained the situation regarding people hiding behind trusts and simply want to know who really owns the aircraft.

I suspect this has all come about due to political pressure of some sort or another to pave the way for a bilateral agreement (I hope).

[IO540]

According to the FAA lawyer who spoke to us earlier this year, they have no intention of removing trusts of a way of owning an N reg for non US citizens. They explained the situation regarding people hiding behind trusts and simply want to know who really owns the aircraft.


I concur. I was there.

[IO540]

I mentioned it because there have been persistent rumours (over here in the UK) that the FAA wants to stop the use of trusts.

There is already plenty of FUD going around the N-reg scene and has been there for all the time I remember; we don't need any more :)

[englishal]

So not sure why the ongoing references.
Yea that was the reason I mentioned it too to quell any rumours than Euro N reg's will be targeted, as you post seemed to imply Socal when speaking of "non-citizen" trusts.

Actually the FAA were very open and frank when we met them earlier this year, and we were even invited to the US embassy for a further meeting. There were various FAA folk at the meeting including one of the Chief Consul's lawyers and they explained the situation and assured us that they had no wish and no plans to prevent europeans from running N registered aeroplanes under a trust....