FAA proposes fining Indiana charter flight service

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The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has proposed a $2.2 million civil penalty against Indy Jet Management and other Indiana-based associated parties based out of the Indianapolis Regional Airport for allegedly conducting illegal charter flights.

The associated parties include 11 individuals and limited liability companies. Gary Aletto and Bradley Cable are named in the citation because they control nine of the companies, according to the FAA claims.

The FAA alleges Aletto, Cable and their LLCs handled different aspects of the charter service and provided the approximately 168 paid passenger-carrying flights which occurred between March 2017 and February 2018.

The companies did not have the required FAA-operating or air-carrier certificates and conducted flights without appropriate operation specifications, according to the agency.

The company used multiple Cessna CE-500 series airplanes flown by unqualified pilots who did not complete the training, testing, and competency checks that the FAA requires, according to the FAA.

The various parties have 30 days to respond after receiving the agency’s enforcement letters. They have the option of challenging the allegations or making a counter offer.

The FAA issued subpoenas in 2014 against AirXL, a private air-travel service owned by Aletto, and executives provided more than 2,000 pages of documents.