The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) 15 recommendations as a means of addressing aircraft registration fraud and abuse.
The scope of work involved reviewing relevant laws, regulations, and FAA policies as well as reports, Department of Justice (DOJ) press releases and court cases illustrating risks associated with the registry. The GAO also analyzed aircraft registry data from fiscal year 2010 through 2018 to identify registrations with risk indicators and interviewed FAA registry, legal, law enforcement liaison, and safety officials, as well as officials from DOJ and Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The GAO indicated its review of the FAA’s registry process revealed there are risks associated with FAA not verifying applicant identity, ownership and address information, adding the registry is further vulnerable to fraud and abuse when applicants register aircraft using opaque ownership structures affording limited transparency into who is the actual beneficial owner.
The FAA maintains information on about 300,000 civil aircraft.
The GAO determined the FAA generally relies on self-certification and doesn’t verify key information such as applicant identity or aircraft ownership. Shell company or limited liability company ownership can also make it difficult to determine who ultimately owns an aircraft.
Included among the GAO’s recommendations is the FAA collect and verify key information on aircraft owners; undertake a risk assessment of the registry; leverage information-technology modernization efforts to develop data analytics approaches for detecting registry fraud and abuse; and formalize coordination mechanisms with law-enforcement agencies.
The GAO said the FAA agreed with all of the recommendations.