The aviation industry is beginning to react to the FAA’s October 4 suspension and then last Friday’s revocation of AMI Jet Charter’s Part 135 certificate, in which the FAA cited illegal foreign influence over the company’s charter operations. “I am extremely angered by the [FAA’s] decision last Friday to revoke the operating certificate of AMI Jet Charter,” wrote NATA president James Coyne in a letter to NATA members yesterday. Calling it a “shocking development,” Coyne said the FAA’s move “raises legitimate concerns about the unilateral authority select members of the FAA legal team have over operational control issues affecting the Part 135 industry.” Despite NATA’s close working relationship with the FAA, some agency “attorneys have essentially derailed the operations of one of the biggest and best Part 135 certificate holders in the country for reasons other than safety,” Coyne added. “NATA believes that this action against AMI is driven more by arrogance and a failure to understand how Part 135 is different from Part 121 than by true concerns about the safety of operations conducted on AMI aircraft.” Meanwhile, said an AMI spokesman, “We’re continuing our discussions with the FAA.”