WHAT THE PROS KNOW
EXPERT PANEL
Due Process
Getting busted by the FAA
BY GREG LASLO
WHOEVER FIRST SAID “Rules are meant to be broken” wasn’t a pilot. And
if he was, well, he’d never gotten the letter in the mail accusing him of
doing exactly that. Because, let’s face it: Personal correspondence from
the FAA ranks down there with getting something from the Internal
Revenue Service. It’s probably not going to be good news.
But it happens, even when you’re a good, conscientious pilot. The
next thing you know, there it is: official notification that the FAA has
reason to believe you broke an FAR, and you’re under investigation
for the alleged infraction.
Since this turn of events can, indeed, go several different ways,
we asked Alan Farkas, Patrick Phillips, and Michael Van Hoomissen
of EAA’s Legal Advisory Council for advice on what to do with that
news—as well as what will happen next. As it turns out, if you take the
right steps, it may not be as bad as you think.
GETTING THE NEWS
Officially, the letter is called a “letter of investigation.” It’ll say some-
thing to the effect of, “The FAA is investigating such-and-such situ-
ation, and it appears you may have violated
this regulation or that one; you have 10 days
to respond, and if you fail to respond, the in-
spector will conclude his or her investigation
without the benefit of your input.”
This is your first fork in the road. You
have no regulatory obligation to respond,
so you shouldn’t, other than to say you’ll
cooperate to the best of your abilities,
Alan said. If you offer more, you’ll end
up blabbing something that the FAA will
use against you, which obviously isn’t
helpful. “The only obligations a pilot has
are, depending on what the situation
is, to provide records to demonstrate
qualifications and proper recordkeeping
and, to the extent that there is any
communication, to be truthful,” he said.
