Comment: The FAA has been less than rigorous in its registration and oversight of private aviation in the United States. A large percentage of aircraft in this country have “flown beneath the radar” with regard to the FAA’s vetting/registration procedures, a fact that can only work to the advantage of terrorists and criminals.
In particular, the nexus of narco-traffickers and terrorists highlighted by investigative reporter Daniel Hopsicker comes into focus here. The operations of that milieu utilize “rogue” aviation networks that serve intelligence services, drug dealers and various groups of malefactors associated with them.
Excerpt: The chairman of the Senate subcommittee overseeing aviation said Friday he would recommend holding congressional hearings on aircraft registration after The Associated Press reported the Federal Aviation Administration was missing data on one-third of U.S. planes.
“We need to find out why, and how it can be brought back to have a registry that has credibility,” said North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan, a Democrat.
The FAA says as many as 119,000 of the 357,000 U.S.-registered aircraft have “questionable registration” due to missing paperwork, invalid addresses and other paperwork problems.
In reports in 2007 and 2008, the agency warned that the problem was causing loopholes that terrorists, drug traffickers and other criminals might exploit. It was concerned that a criminal might use a U.S. registration, known as an N‑number, to slip by computer systems designed to track suspicious flights. . . .
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