NATA President James Coyne (right) criticized Senator Bill Nelson's (D-FL, 2nd picture, right) decision to re-introduce legislation that would expand existing background-check requirements to virtually any foreign pilot trained by a U.S. flight school.  The measure is similar to legislation that was approved by the U.S. Senate last fall.

Currently, only flight training organizations providing instruction in aircraft weighing 12,500 pounds or more are required to give notice to the Department of Justice (DOJ) before they may train a foreign national per the Aviation Transportation Security Act, signed into law in late 2001.  Since passage of this legislation, NATA has been pressing the DOJ to implement a system to provide the required notifications. However, the DOJ has yet to implement this system for students not already qualified in larger aircraft, effectively preventing U.S.-based businesses from training many foreign nationals. 

The legislation introduced today by Sen. Nelson removes the 12,500 pound threshold, effectively requiring all flight-training providers to give notification to the DOJ of their intent to train a foreign national on any aircraft of any size.  The only exception is for existing pilots that already possess an aircraft type rating.

"NATA and others within the industry have spent countless hours and resources trying to convince the DOJ to implement the notification process to no avail," Coyne stated.  "It boggles the mind that, to complicate matters more, Senator Nelson would remove the weight limitation so that U.S. businesses are prevented from training foreign students.

"The fact remains that the DOJ has to this point only accepted and implemented the provisions in law that they deem important," Coyne stated.  "They have ignored the law by not implementing this approval process and will likely only adhere to the language removing the weight limitation without taking action to fully implement the notification process.

"As we have stated in the past, imposing new requirements on the flight training industry is not the appropriate response to security concerns about foreign nationals.  These issues are better addressed by immigration controls that apply to all foreign nationals seeking admission to the United States as students, regardless of whether a foreigner studies aviation, medicine or nuclear science.

"NATA will continue to vehemently oppose this legislation as it will only force flight schools to suffer additional financial hardships while awaiting activation of a DOJ notification process that is so far non-existent."

FMI: www.nata-online.org