Transportation

Board Approves Background-Check Certification for Foreign Student Pilots

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County supervisors unanimously approved a new law Wednesday designed to help make sure that foreign students learning to fly at County airports are undergoing federal background checks.

The federal government has legal authority over aviation in the United States and requires anyone who is not a citizen to undergo background checks before they can take flight training. However, in 2012, a report issued by the federal Government Accounting Office (GAO) stated there were “concerning” gaps in that background-check system — more than a decade after the 9/11 attacks.

The ordinance County supervisors approved Wednesday will require flight schools that train foreign student pilots at any of the County’s eight airports to sign a form every year stating they are complying with the federal background-check law.

“We have more reason today than ever before to have this certification in place,” Board Chairwoman Dianne Jacob said. “It’s simple, it’s not adding bureaucracy (and) it’s not doing the job of the federal government. That is certainly not our role.”

The County ordinance must be approved a second time when the Board meets Feb. 26. County Department of Public Works officials said they would begin enforcing the new ordinance when the new fiscal year begins July 1. Public Works operates the County’s airport system.

Public Works officials said there are 14 private flight schools and roughly 1,200 flight instructors working at County-operated airports.

In addition to approving the local ordinance, the Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed to: increase their efforts to lobby the federal government to fix “the gaps” in the existing federal law; increase communications with flight schools and instructors to make doubly sure they are aware of the background check rules; tell other counties statewide about their new ordinance; and bring the ordinance back to the Board for review in a year’s time to see how it is working.

County supervisors directed Public Works on Sept. 11, 2012 — shortly after the GAO published its study and on the 11-year anniversary 9/11 — to work with local groups and draft an ordinance that would require flight schools and instructors to certify they were complying with federal law.

The 9/11 Commission Report stated that some of the terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks were trained at flight schools in Germany and states in the U.S.

 

 

Gig Conaughton is a communications specialist with the County of San Diego Communications Office. Contact