FAA Aeronautical Center counsel A.L. Haizlip addressed recent criticism by the Boston Globe of the FAA aircraft registry, notably the newspaper’s inability to identity aircraft owners behind limited liability corporations or owner trusts, during the keynote speech yesterday at the NBAA Business Aircraft Finance, Registration, and Legal Conference in Fort Myers, Florida. Stressing that his views are his “own personal observations,” Haizlip said the FAA “wants to provide as much transparency as possible” in the registry, while also taking into consideration aircraft owners’ privacy concerns.

The Boston Globe articles have criticized the FAA registry for obscuring the true owners of aircraft used for illegal activities such as human or drug trafficking. Haizlip said an internal audit revealed that only a “very, very small percentage” of U.S.-registered aircraft are used for illicit purposes.

Citing ongoing, simultaneous reviews of the FAA aircraft registry by the DOT Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office—both prompted by the Boston Globe reports—he said the FAA is internally debating options to increase owner transparency. Some would barely upset the status quo, while others would make sweeping changes to the amount of owner information the FAA collects.

Under the most extreme option, Haizlip said the FAA would collect names of C-level executives, directors, board members, and major shareholders for aircraft owned by a corporation; and, for aircraft held in a trust, the owners' names, their citizenship(s), aircraft operating agreements, and arrangement of aircraft custody/use. While this kind of data wouldn’t be available publicly in the online aircraft registry, Haizlip expressed concern that it could be revealed via a Freedom of Information Act request or obtained for and used in litigation.