Agency Clamping Down on Registrations

Starting Thursday, owners and operators of aircraft with “questionable” registrations might be denied access to the ATC system, as well as trigger a violation notice to the owner. On June 23, 2003, the FAA published a notice stating that its aircraft registration system would be augmented to reflect the “observed status of an aircraft’s certificate of registration” and that registrations have to be updated at least every three years. As of that date, those aircraft records containing information that would render a certificate of registration ineffective were changed to reflect a status of “in question.” Any unreported address change, any aircraft sale or pending registration that isn’t followed up and any triennial form that is returned because of a bad mailing address could flag an aircraft as “in question.” Aircraft registration status can be checked online or by contacting the FAA’s aircraft registration branch toll free at (866) 762-9434.