Senator Calls for Hearings on Aircraft Registration

Senate aviation subcommittee chairman Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) wants Congress to investigate reports that the FAA is missing information on about a third of the country's 357,000 registered airplanes. The agency warned in 2007 and 2008 that criminals might use N-numbers from these aircraft to slip by computer systems designed to track suspicious flights. To clean up its database, the FAA has since begun a program that requires all aircraft owners to re-register their airplanes over the next three years. But that program "puts an unnecessary burden on owners of U.S.-registered aircraft," said Boston JetSearch senior vice president and BJT columnist Jeff Wieand, who added that "hearings would be beneficial if they lead to a re-examination" of the re-registration program.