FAA Enforcement

[ColoPilot]

The thread from the Alaska pilot with 400 hours and no PPL reminded me of a urban legend I heard when I first started flying: An old, long time commercial pilot flying (charters or cargo with his own plane depending on the story), is discovered to have never had any pilot certificates. The FAA can't figure out what to do, so they issue him a PPL so they can suspend it.

So my question -- what can the FAA do to someone like this? Do they have the power to fine or jail egregious violators of the FARs? I've never heard of any punishment worse than permanently losing a certificate.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Interesting legal question. Under the United States Code, the FAA has the power to investigate such things, and if you did refuse to cooperate and drove off, I suspect the Inspector would consider that suspicious enough to continue the investigation. The one thing of which I am reasonably sure is they would not drop the matter just because you refused to cooperate, and that eventually, they would complete their investigation, with a court order and law enforcement assistance if necessary.

I believe they would have to show probable cause to obtain a court order. If you were the investigator in the given scenario, what probable cause would you present to the judge for a warrant? I'm curious to know whether you believe refusal to cooperate is itself probable cause.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Where is this collection? Looks like it's worth a visit.

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