New Rules for Flight Schools

Lawmakers in several states, fearing flight schools could again become training grounds for terrorists, want background checks for students and limits on instruction. A bill introduced in New Jersey would require flight schools to keep a register of applicants that could be made available to law enforcement and conduct background checks on students. They would be disqualified from taking classes if they had been convicted of crimes such as aggravated assault, arson or murder.

South Carolina and Connecticut are considering similar legislation. In Michigan, lawmakers want schools to refuse lessons to anyone on probation or convicted of a felony in the previous seven years.

"It's a minor inconvenience to those who are earnestly learning how to fly," said Assemblyman Neil Cohen, the New Jersey bill's sponsor.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates the schools and is the only body that can authorize pilot's licenses, has said the measures may be well intended, but are overreaching and unnecessary.

"States cannot regulate students at flight schools," said FAA spokesman William Shumann. "The FAA has been adamant that we regulate aviation, not the states."

Legislation is pending in Congress that directs the FAA to review enrollment practices at flight schools and direct them to refuse instruction to students deemed a threat.

In January, the FAA issued enhanced safety recommendations for flight schools after a 15-year-old student pilot crashed into a Miami office building. The guidelines include limiting student access to airplane ignition keys, checking students' identification before each lesson, and watching for threatening or unusual behavior among student pilots and people renting airplanes.

Jim Reed of the National Conference on State Legislatures said where the federal government's power stops and the state's starts is not well defined. For example, he said, states are allowed to regulate the business practices of flight schools.

That hasn't stopped states from trying.

Lawmakers in Tennessee backed down from a proposal to require crop dusters to obtain a state permit in addition to the federal one after the FAA challenged it.

In Florida, lawmakers want flight schools to be licensed by the state Department of Business & Professional Regulation and only accept students fluent in English. Oklahoma legislators are considering a bill to make it a crime to provide flight instruction to anyone who is not a United States citizen.

Pilots and flight schools have consistently opposed legislation on the state level, saying it adds a potentially confusing layer of bureaucracy. They also question the prohibitions on convicted felons.

"If someone's been convicted and served their sentence, they've paid their debt to society," said Warren Morningstar, a spokesman for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. "I don't think there's any state that prevents people from getting a driver's license based on their previous history."

Morningstar said a background check would likely not have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks, which were carried out by men with no criminal records.

"It imposes an increased cost and burden on both the flight schools and the aviator," he said. "The question is, to what end?"

Dick Knapinski, a spokesman for the National Association of Flight Instructors, agreed.

"The legislation is just a reaction," Knapinski said. "What you could have is a patchwork of 50 different sets of regulations where somebody's pilot training in one state wouldn't be valid in another."

Marcel Bernard, chief flight instructor at Freeway Airport in Bowie, Md., said requiring background checks would scare away business, which has only just started to recover from the post-Sept. 11 shutdown the airport faced. Sept. 11 hijacker Hani Hanjour took several flights with an instructor weeks before the attacks at Bernard's airport.

"If they're going to think along those lines, why not provide security background checks for people driving large trucks?" Bernard asked.

Maryland Delegate Joan Pitkin, whose district includes Freeway Airport, shelved a bill she had proposed to require background checks and fingerprinting after strong opposition from flight schools.

"We've heard from people who have strong concerns that the FAA guidelines may not resolve the problems that were made horribly clear on Sept. 11," Pitkin said. "I look for the FAA to lead the way on this. If they don't, perhaps we will have to reintroduce this."

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Author: 6 ABC-AP