CAA: GA News, "States Try to Regulate Flight Schools"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thursday, March 14, 2002

States Try to Regulate Flight Schools


TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Fearing flight schools could again become training
grounds for terrorists, lawmakers in several states are seeking to limit
instruction and require background checks for students. 

A bill introduced in New Jersey, for example, would require flight
schools to conduct background checks and keep a register of applicants
that could be made available to authorities. Students would be barred
from taking classes if they had been convicted of crimes such as
aggravated assault, arson or murder. 

South Carolina and Connecticut are considering similar legislation. In
Michigan, lawmakers want schools to refuse lessons to anyone who is on
probation or has had a felony conviction in the previous seven years. 

Assemblyman Neil Cohen, the New Jersey bill's sponsor, called the
proposals ``a minor inconvenience to those who are earnestly learning
how to fly.'' 

The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates the schools and is
the only body that can authorize pilot's licenses, said the state
measures are unnecessary and encroach on the agency's authority. 

``States cannot regulate students at flight schools,'' FAA spokesman
William Shumann said. ``The FAA has been adamant that we regulate
aviation, not the states.'' 

Legislation is pending in Congress that would direct the FAA to review
enrollment practices at flight schools and tell them to refuse
instruction to students deemed a threat. 

At least eight of the 19 hijackers Sept. 11 had some pilot training.
Most trained in Florida; others took lessons in the San Diego and
Phoenix areas. 

Pilots and flight schools oppose state regulation of the industry,
saying it could add a confusing layer of bureaucracy. They also question
the prohibitions on convicted felons. 

``If someone's been convicted and served their sentence, they've paid
their debt to society,'' said Warren Morningstar, spokesman for the
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. ``I don't think there's any
state that prevents people from getting a driver's license based on
their previous history.'' 

Morningstar also said a background check would probably not have
prevented the Sept. 11 attacks, which were carried out by men with no
criminal records. 

``It imposes an increased cost and burden on both the flight schools and
the aviator,'' he said. ``The question is, to what end?'' 

And Dick Knapinski, a spokesman for the National Association of Flight
Instructors, said: ``What you could have is a patchwork of 50 different
sets of regulations where somebody's pilot training in one state
wouldn't be valid in another.'' 

In Florida, lawmakers want flight schools to be licensed by the state
and accept only students fluent in English. Oklahoma legislators
considered making it a crime to provide flight instruction to anyone who
is not a U.S. citizen, but the bill died in committee last month. 

Marcel Bernard, chief flight instructor at Freeway Airport in Bowie,
Md., said requiring background checks would scare away business. One of
the Sept. 11 hijackers, Hani Hanjour, took several flights with an
instructor weeks before the attacks at Bernard's airport. 

``If they're going to think along those lines, why not provide security
background checks for people driving large trucks?'' Bernard asked. 

On the Net: 

FAA: http://www.faa.gov 

Aircraft owners: http://news.aopa.org


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