Tail-number Snafu Prompts Call for Aircraft Registration Data Review

After landing their Cessna 172 at Santa Barbara [Calif.] Municipal Airport on August 28, aircraft owners John and Martha King were met by police who held them at gunpoint, handcuffed them and placed them in separate police cars. Authorities released the couple after it turned out that their aircraft carried the retired N-number of a Cessna 150 that had been stolen eight years earlier. The National Business Aviation Association has responded to the incident by calling for a review of the government's process for obtaining, using and sharing aircraft registration information. "We believe there is an urgent need for the creation of a joint government-industry group that can expeditiously conduct a top-to-bottom review of the process to ensure that incidents such as this one never occur in the future," said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen. "This isn't the first time outdated information has resulted in a situation like the one involving the Kings, but we want it to be the last."