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Domestic and International Aviation Law Chapter Fifteen 1) You are a member of a flying club

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Domestic and International Aviation Law Chapter Fifteen

1) You are a member of a flying club.  One morning at the clubhouse, you overhear a conversation between a couple of the club’s pilots who are about to go flying.  You know the pair to be VFR-only pilots who don’t file plans because they believe it’s none of the government’s business where they’re flying.  The two are mad that the FAA, citing reasons of national security, has recently established a Prohibited Area over a nearby nuclear power plant.  Combined with existing Class B and Special Use airspace in the area, circumnavigating the new Prohibited Area will require them to deviate from the customary and preferred direct route to and from their destination, adding time and expense for the flight.  “Here’s what we’ll do,” one of them says, “We’ll use this duct tape to change the one in the N-number to look like a 4, then we’ll just fly on through the usual way.  Hell, they ain’t going to shoot us down, and even if they get our N-number, they’ll be looking for the wrong airplane.”  If they do that, will they be risking criminal prosecution in addition to FAA enforcement action?  Explain fully.

2. Acting on a tip, law enforcement officers in a major U.S. city take into custody a person believed to be one of the perpetrators of the massacre at Lod International Airport in Israel. Does the U.S. have jurisdiction to try the suspect in U.S. courts for this crime? Explain. 

3 A group of homeowners living near a small general aviation airport have worked themselves up into a frenzy over the noise from an aerobatic academy based at the airport. At a homeowners association meeting, one of the members says: “This is war. If those damn pilots want to make our lives miserable, we can make theirs miserable too. There’s not even a fence around that airport. You can walk right up to one of those planes anytime, day or night. I’ll bet that if they started having problems with flat tires and scratched paint or busted stuff, they’d move somewhere else.” If the speaker or anyone else decides to follow through on the idea, what consequences do they risk? Explain.

4. You are an airline passenger. As you are approaching the pre-boarding security screening area, you remember that the pocketknife your late grandfather gave you when you were a kid is in the backpack you’re carrying with you. If you miss the flight, you’ll miss an important job interview. But you really loved your grandfather and that little old knife is precious to you, so you don’t want the screeners to take it because you know you’d never get it back. The screeners don’t look very organized, so you figure there’s a pretty good chance they’ll overlook it. What are your options? What will you do and why?
5. A young computer hacker has figured out how to hack into the airport’s computercontrolled runway and approach lighting system.  He decides to show what incompetent jerks the airport’s IT workers are by taking control of the system and turning off the lights from time to time when aircraft are approaching to land at night.  Assuming no accident results, could this mischief lead to criminal charges?  Explain.  
6. An airline passenger is stuck in traffic on her way to the airport. Fearing that she’ll miss her flight, it occurs to her that maybe if the airline got an anonymous threat of a bomb on the flight, that would delay the departure long enough for her to catch the flight.

What is her downside risk if she decides to make such a call? Explain.

7. You are an airline passenger. During pre-boarding screening, a very annoying TSA employee asks you to open your wallet.
   1. 1. Is this a reasonable search? Why?
      2. Your immediate urge is to respond sarcastically, saying something like: “Oh,

darn, that’s where I hid the machine gun I was going to use to hijack the flight.” What adverse legal consequences could result from such a remark?

8. You have bought a prosperous aircraft station from its previous owner, continuing the operation with the same employees. One day in the shop you observe one of your mechanics remove a data plate from an alternator and replace it with another one he removes from a drawer on his work table. When you ask what he’s doing, he explains that they purchase alternators from a local discount auto supply shop, then replace the data plate with one showing the unit to be an FAA-approved part. He says the previous owner told them everybody knew the units were identical, but the manufacturer just charged ten times as much for a unit with the FAA-approved data plate. The shop buys them cheap, but charges the customer the manufacturer’s list price for the FAA-approved version. He says they’ve always done that with a lot of parts, which is why the business is so lucrative.
   1. Assuming that the parts are in fact identical except for the data plate, is this

action a crime? Explain.

1. 2. Now that you know about the practice, would you be committing a crime if you allow it to continue, as long as you don’t do any of the data plate switching yourself? Explain.
   3. If the data plate switching is a crime, what are the penalties: 
      1. If the part is installed on an aircraft, and works OK?
      2. If the part is installed on an aircraft and fails because of a difference between

the automotive and FAA-approved aircraft versions?

1. 1. 3. If the failure of the part causes a fatal accident?
      4. To your business, for violations past and future?