The FAA-The most dangerous organization in America

A multipart article by The Spotlight is showing that one of the most dangerous organizations in the United States Government is the Federal Aviation Administration. Their practices and policies, and total lack of oversight in some areas they are supposed to protect the traveling public are staggering.

In part one of the article, we find that aircraft registration is almost designed to allow foreign criminal organizations to hide ownership of their aircraft. In the article we meet Asnaldo Del Valle Gonzalez. In 2008 a small plane, flown by a convicted drug trafficker, crashed into his house shortly after takeoff. All three people on the plane, as well as his twin daughters and two grandchildren were killed in the crash.

The aircraft, registered N6463L, was registered in the FAA database to Aircraft Guaranty, a company that resisters aircraft as a trust for foreign owners. They were never able to find out exactly who owned the aircraft. There are over 300,000 aircraft in the FAA database. Of those, 55,000 are registered using known secrecy techniques, and another 7700 are registered through anonymous trust companies. The process has such poor oversight that the registration for a TWA cargo plane was finally cancelled in 2016. The only problem was that it had crashed 57 years prior in Chicago. The reason listed for cancellation was that it expired.

N102R registration

N102R Accident report

The FAA openly admits that they don't have the resources to check the actual ownership of aircraft registered in their database, yet they only charge $5 to register an aircraft, the same as they charged 1964. If they were to raise the cost they could raise potentially millions that they could put towards oversight of registrations.

apps.bostonglobe.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

yet they only charge $5 to register an aircraft, the same as they charged 1964

What?!?! I pay way more than that for my car!

No wonder they are having problems.

In part two of the series, we learn about a Lear Jet that crashed after running out of fuel on a one hour flight from Germany. The aircraft landed intact in a corn field, where the pilot, an Iranian national with a criminal record was found unconscious in the cockpit, with pilot certificate from the US with a fake name on it. The pilot, Nader Ali Sabouri Haghighi, had a revoked certificate, but the FAA sent him a new one. All he had to do was call the FAA hotline, give them the name and license number of another pilot he had dealings with, and say he lost his certificate. Without even checking, the FAA sent a new certificate to the address he provided.

In 2009 the FAA received warnings that people with terrorist connections had certificates and were working maintenance on aircraft. Haghighi flew for four years in his fake certificate, even though he looked nothing like the person it belonged to, because of the simple fact that pilot certificates don't have a picture of the person it belongs to in it. They still don't to this day.

The FAA defends their licensing policy by the fact that to receive a license, the pilot has to have a government issued ID. After 9/11, the FAA was ordered to overhaul their licensing. One of the few changes made since then, was to use higher quality materials to make it harder to forge them.

Incredibly, after he got out of jail, the FAA issued Haghigi a medical certificate to help him get a job at an airline in Indonesia. All he did was change one letter in the name he had been using, and change the date of birth slightly. It was only after another agency noticed it that something was done.

Then there is the case of Richard Hoagland. He was issued a certificate by the FAA under the name of Terry Symanski, who had been dead since 1991. As recently as 2010 Hoagland was issued a new certificate under the Symanski name.

apps.bostonglobe.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

Part off the problem is that Congress passed a law prohibiting direct ownership of an N numbered (US registered aircraft(49 USC 44102). But then, to promote the US aircraft industry, it was allowed to have an aircraft owned by a US voting trust. There are fairly new requirements that will alleviate most of the concerns in your post. The policy requires that the trustee maintain current information about the identity of the operator of its aircraft, the address of the operator, the location of the aircraft records, the base of operations and the nature of its operations. And the trust document, which identifies the beneficiary ("real owner") must be given to the FAA. And that info is available to anyone who knows enough to file a FOI request.

a reply to: F4guy

The problem is that the FAA moves slower than someone walking uphill through molasses poured on glue. It's been 15 years since they were instructed to make changes because of 9/11, and they've done the absolute bare minimum required. Almost the only change to the licensing procedure is better quality paper.

Pilots are still expected to self report felonies, there are no pictures of the person it was issued to on it, the bare minimum background check is performed.....and this is sixteen years after 9/11. How long will it take to make real change? Thirty years? Forty?

originally posted by: Zaphod58
Then there is the case of Richard Hoagland. He was issued a certificate by the FAA under the name of Terry Symanski, who had been dead since 1991. As recently as 2010 Hoagland was issued a new certificate under the Symanski name.

Surely not, the Richard Hoagland? The interdimensional face on Mars.

a reply to: Zaphod58

You better watch cho ass.

Dont wanna be ruffling the feathers of the "most dangerous organization in America".

a reply to: Zaphod58

I read the article in your original post just last night I believe. I was shocked, particularly with the details of terrorists and dead people still having a license to pilot. The information in that article really surprised me. I had no clue.

a reply to: Sagacity

I've been saying for years that the FAA needs to be either completely overhauled, or they need to start over completely, but even I didn't realize how bad it really was.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Alaska DOT&PF had a white paper about this last year. This state is currently looking at modernizing the registration process. The initial year's cost is projected to be somewhere around $70,000. The $5 fee obviously doesn't cover that, but the state has projected that subsequent years of maintaining the database will be very close to fully covered, cost wise, by the $5 fee.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

And, as usual, little to nothing will change. If they doubled the fee, they might be able to have some of those people they brag about to monitor registrations do something besides simply type the information into the database.

In reference to the Nader guy obtaining a fraudulent license replacement... I was just thinking that I had to provide more information and had greater scrutiny applied just getting a copy of my college transcript. That was a even a couple of decades ago btw.

a reply to: Sagacity

It's significantly harder getting a replacement CDL, or getting it changed to a new state.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Yea and that's just the administrative issues....
How about their handling of flight safety etc....
Reminds me of a good book from 2000... 'the Tombstone Imperative' by Andrew Weir...
Will have to dig up from the downstairs library and have a reread methinx...

The airport operators also have a responsibility as to what aircraft are parked on their ramps they have landing fees, rental fees etc., a reply to: Zaphod58

a reply to: gimcrackery
Not quite the same scope of responsibilities (accountability) as the governing (administrative) body.
Like saying a carpark is responsible for the road-worthiness of the vehicles, and the drivers thereof.

The FAA spins propaganda to pretend that it is interested in passenger-rights, but it's behavior and kowtowing to the airline corporations shows the opposite.

Shrinking airline seats.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Now lets all calm down and recite their mantra together....

Our Mission -
Our continuing mission is to provide the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world.

Our Vision -
We strive to reach the next level of safety, efficiency, environmental responsibility and global leadership. We are accountable to the American public and our stakeholders.

Our Values -
Safety is our passion. We work so all air and space travelers arrive safely at their destinations.
Excellence is our promise. We seek results that embody professionalism, transparency and accountability.
Integrity is our touchstone. We perform our duties honestly, with moral soundness, and with the highest level of ethics.
People are our strength. Our success depends on the respect, diversity, collaboration, and commitment of our workforce.
Innovation is our signature. We foster creativity and vision to provide solutions beyond today's boundaries.

Do we all feel warm and fuzzy around the edges now?

Those mission statements are like school papers - pay someone to write one for you, post it on your website.

a reply to: roadgravel
Yea.... and not one real accountability in sight...lol