FAA Bill Maintains Privacy Program

April 6, 2011 at 8:24 am | Posted in Aviation Law Current Event | Leave a comment

by Sara M. Langston with the blog faculty

Source: AVweb

The House version of the FAA reauthorization bill passed last Friday contains an amendment that would maintain the Blocked Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) program and allow aircraft owners to prevent Internet tracking of their aircraft’s movements. The amendment, if it survives the conference stage of the legislative process in which the Senate and House merge their versions of the authorization bill, could trump a proposed rule by the FAA to permit N-number blocking only if a “valid security risk” exists. As we reported last month, the FAA rule, whose comment period closed Monday, would require those asking to block their aircraft registrations to prove “a verifiable threat to person, property or company, including a threat of death, kidnapping or serious bodily harm against an individual, a recent history of violent terrorist activity in the geographic area in which the transportation is provided, or a threat against a company.” NBAA mounted a furious lobbying effort and it apparently bore fruit with House heavyweight John Mica, R-Fla. […more]