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Public Will Soon
Have Greater Access To General Aviation Flight Information By Mike Mitchell |
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May 31, 2011 - Remember in 2008 when the CEOs of Ford,
Chrysler and General Motors, flew on their corporate
jets to Washington, D.C., to plead before congress for a
taxpayer bailout? When it was learned that each
roundtrip fight cost about $20,000 it resulted in bad
publicity which prompted GM to try to prevent the public
from tracking its planes in databases compiled by the
Federal Aviation Administration.
Well the public will soon have greater access to online information about the flight paths of general aviation aircraft, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced on Friday. The change will be effective 60 days from publication in the Federal Register.
Operators of general aviation aircraft no longer will be
able to cite privacy as a reason to prevent the public
from viewing their flight information on Internet sites
that show the registration number, flight path,
departure point and destination, and flight length for
all aircraft operations over the United States.
In
the future, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
will block public viewing of this information only after
the operators certify that they have a valid security
concern. As
before, neither the sites nor the aircraft owner or
operator will disclose the identity of persons on the
flight, the purpose of the flight or the reason for the
security concern. |
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Former General Motors CEO
Rick Wagoner testified before Congress on Nov. 18, 2008
after arriving in Washington, D.C. on a Gulfstream IV
corporate jet |
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?This
action is in keeping with the Obama administration?s commitment
to transparency in government,? Secretary LaHood said.
?Both general aviation and commercial aircraft use the
public airspace and air traffic control facilities, and the
public has a right to information about their activities.? Since 1997, air carriers, corporations that own and operate aircraft, professional aviation organizations and government agencies have had access to the real-time flight information of both airlines and general aviation through the Aircraft Situational Display to Industry (ASDI) and National Airspace System Status Information (NASSI) websites.
Other
members of the public have been able to subscribe to this
information with the data delayed five minutes for security
reasons. While
commercial air carriers? schedules are available to the public,
the operations of general aviation aircraft cannot be tracked
except through one of these electronic systems. |