Aviation Law

Any pilot whose medical expires after March 30 can continue to fly until June 30 without renewing in light of the novel coronavirus crisis. The FAA announced on Friday it will not be enforcing medical expirations during that period so that medical personnel can focus on dealing with the pandemic. “The Notice states that from […]

Canada has extended medical privileges for as much as four months for pilots whose medicals expire before June 1 and AOPA is asking for similar consideration and more for U.S. pilots. AOPA says it is now working with the FAA to figure out what to do about pilots whose medicals expire at the end of […]

The FAA has updated guidance on expense sharing for private flights with an advisory circular that adds modern context to the 30-year-old rule. AC 61-142 was published at the end of February and is in response to the 2018 FAA reauthorization, which required the FAA to issue clearer guidance on flight sharing. Although not a […]

A former American Airlines mechanic was sentenced to 37 months in prison on Wednesday for “attempted destruction of an aircraft.” Abdul-Majeed Marouf Ahmed Alani, 60, had previously pleaded guilty to tampering with the air data module (ADM) on American Airlines Flight 2834, which was scheduled to fly from Florida’s Miami International Airport (MIA) to Nassau, […]

U.S. Senators James Inhofe, R-Okla., and Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., introduced a bill on Thursday that would establish a National Center for the Advancement of Aviation (NCAA). The NCAA is intended to focus on supporting the development and distribution of aviation and aerospace science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)-based curriculums, workforce development, economic and safety data […]

At least one airline has run afoul of the new ADS-B mandate and adjusted its aircraft deployment accordingly. BahamasAir wasn’t able to get three of its Boeing 737-500s equipped with ADS-B before the Jan. 1 deadline so those aircraft have been taken off the routes it flies to Florida. It has one 737-700 and five […]

The FAA has been handed a court ruling that could affect the way it routes air traffic over populated areas all over the country. A determined group of residents of Burien, a Seattle suburb about two miles west of Sea-Tac Airport, recently won a lawsuit over an operational change that put dozens of turboprop regional […]

The circumstances of the crash of an Air Saguenay De Havilland Beaver last July will likely never be known but the family of one of the passengers is suing the airline by claiming the “probable inference” that it was either the pilot or the airplane’s fault or a combination of both. But even the language […]

A Southwest flight attendant is alleging in a lawsuit that two pilots streamed live video of people, including her, using a bathroom on the aircraft to an iPad in the cockpit. But the airline says it was a prank that went wrong and the pilots deny it altogether. The flight attendant claims in the suit […]

Hundreds of Boeing 737 MAXes languish in storage sites all over the world but Reuters is reporting an Air Canada airplane got a few dozen hours on it in August and early September because of the airline’s unique position among MAX operators. Air Canada didn’t operate any 737s when it bought the MAX (it’s mostly […]