The NTSB has issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) seeking comments from the public regarding amendments to its procedural rules dealing with review of FAA certificate actions, such as emergency revocation or suspension of a pilot’s certificate.
The ANPRM indicates that certain parties have approached the NTSB concerning emergency certificate actions, which involve cases in which the FAA issues an immediately effective order revoking or suspending a certificate. In such cases, the NTSB’s procedural rules allow a party to challenge the emergency status of the case, and provide an expedited timeline for doing so. The rules currently require the NTSB’s administrative law judges to “consider whether, based on the acts and omissions alleged in the administrator’s order, and assuming the truth of such factual allegations, the administrator’s emergency determination was appropriate under the circumstances.”
The ANPRM invites public comments concerning this standard of review, as well as other aspects of the emergency review process, such as whether a hearing should occur to allow parties to provide evidence concerning whether the case should be treated as an emergency. The ANPRM further invites comments concerning whether parties should have an opportunity for another level of appeal to challenge the emergency status determination.
In addition, the ANPRM also solicits comments concerning electronic filing of documents for aviation certificate cases, and requests specific consideration as to whether such electronic filing is feasible for individuals who opt not to retain an attorney. The ANPRM further seeks feedback concerning whether any outdated information exists in the current procedural rules.
The 60-day comment period for the ANPRM concludes on Feb. 22, 2011. The ANPRM can be accessed here.
Its about time that the Government “of the People and by the People” also acts in the interests of “the People”.
Not making it harder and harder for the law abiding citizen to practice his/her freedoms, while the felons and criminals get away with it all.
Mr. White,
Hate to tell you this, but ASI’s can already initiate Emergency Revocations. ASI’s cannot revoke a certificate on their own, though. The ASI makes his/her case and provides evidence of the suspected violations to the FAA attorneys. The attorneys decide if they concur. If so, the revocation is ordered. The pilot still has appeal rights, but can’t use the certificate until the case is resolved which could be days or weeks. Emergency Revocation is reserved for the most severe cases such as a pilot who flies while on suspension.
Normally, when the FAA seeks a suspension or revocation (non-emergency), the pilot continues to fly while the case is pending. But these cases can takes months. From a safety perspective, if a pilot is behaving THAT dangerously, the FAA should (and does) have the ability to legally ground that person for safety-sake while the case is processed; hence the emergency suspension or emergency revocation. There are of course pilots that will fly regardless of their certificate status. (FAA still can’t handcuff pilots!)
The suspension of a pilots or engineers license in New Zealand (NZ) is something the Director of CAA can do in NZ and is doing more frequently these days. Many of the persons who have their license suspended are people without sufficient financial recourses and are unable to mount a good legal challenge, which in itself takes a lot of time.
It is my view and that of many senior people within the aviation industry in NZ, the Director is acting as policeman, judge, jury and jailer. As a result there is an abuse of power. Many of the case when looked at closely are minor offenses at best and do not warrant a suspension of certificates, if an offense has occurred at all.
This legislation can be abused very easily and all American citizens need to sit up and pay attention, as many or you and your fathers went to war and gave lives for democracy, freedom and fairness, that will be eroded away.
Record my comments well, suspension should only occur once proven guilty in a court of law.
John Funnell
Past President of the Aviation Industry association of NZ
Some FAA Inspectors would have a lot of fun with this one. Innocent until proven guilty is what the law says.
If a certificate holder has done something bad enough to warrant him no flying then he probably is guilty of a felony or infraction that might warrant suspension of his or her privilge until investigation reveals the truth. But under no circumstance should any
FAA personell be allowed to “Emergency Revoke” anybodies certificate.
Emergency revocations & suspensions with out due process only prevents legal pilots from flying. TERROISTS & DRUG SMUGGLERS DON’T NEED ANY KIND OF LICENSES OR MED CERT. So, to clamp down on American pilots is plumb dumb. Saudi’s crashed the airliners with no licenses or paper work, not Americans. Every week, some pilot in this country gets surrounde by the Feds in the name of “Homeland Security”.