FAA Grounds 800 Aircraft Due To Invalid Registrations

About 800 aircraft—including 52 turboprops, business jets, and turbine helicopters—registered with the FAA under trustee Southern Aircraft Consultancy Inc. (SACI) are now grounded because they no longer have valid registrations, the U.S. agency said on Tuesday. According to the FAA, all of SACI’s aircraft registration certificates are invalid, effective immediately, because the company violated U.S. citizenship requirements when it submitted the registration applications. The FAA also instructed UK-based SACI to surrender all certificates within 21 days.

“SACI registered aircraft for U.S. citizens and foreign nationals using trust agreements,” the FAA said. “To register an aircraft using a trust agreement, the company/trustee must either be a U.S. citizen or a resident alien.” However, SACI violated FAA regulations regarding U.S. citizenship requirements, the agency noted.

“The invalid certificates of aircraft registration will result in the immediate grounding of all aircraft registered to SACI,” the FAA noted. “To operate legally, affected aircraft owners must reregister their aircraft either through another country’s aircraft registry or in the U.S. by submitting an aircraft registration application to the FAA, along with evidence of ownership, and paying the $5 registration fee. Aircraft owners will then have temporary authority to operate within the U.S. until the applicant receives a certificate of aircraft registration or until the FAA denies the application.”

While this temporary authority does not cover flights outside the U.S., an applicant for registration who operates an aircraft outside the U.S. can submit a declaration of international operations at the time of application to receive expedited processing.