House, Senate Leaders Requested The Action, Citing Concerns With Management Of The Database

The Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General will audit the FAA's aircraft registry following a request from  the Chairmen of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and its Subcommittee on Aviation as well as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

In a memo announcing the pending audit, the OIG said that previous work conducted in 2013 and 2014 found that FAA’s Registry lacked accurate and complete information on pilots and U.S. registered aircraft, including aircraft owned and operated under trusts. FAA committed to take a number of corrective actions in response to our recommendations. We have tracked the overall status of the recommendations but have not examined the effectiveness of these changes in detail.

"Citing concerns with oversight issues and recent media reports, the Chairmen of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and its Subcommittee on Aviation as well as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation requested that we assess FAA’s overall management of the Registry and public access to certain Registry elements and its Public Documents Room. They also asked that we highlight changes FAA has made since our last review," the memo says.

"Accordingly, the audit objective is to assess FAA’s management of the Civil Aviation Registry. Specifically, the OIG plans to assess FAA’s (1) controls over the accuracy and completeness of Registry information and compliance with Federal law and (2) policies for providing public access to Registry-related activities."

The audit will be conducted at FAA Headquarters and the FAA Civil Aviation Registry Division at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City, OK. The audit is scheduled to begin this month.

FMI: Memo