News Archive

It is time to tighten up flight training regulations!

Dear Colleague:

I was shocked to learn that flight school students trained in the United States were behind the controls of the aircraft used to commit the worst act of terrorism America has ever seen.

Since those tragic events, I have learned that current federal law has made U.S. aviation training more attractive to foreign students than ever before. Training in the U.S. is cheaper and restrictions on pilots, particularly beginners, are fairly light. Fuel costs and landing fees are much lower in the U.S. than in other countries. Additionally, U.S. schools and flight instructors offer quality training to students and offer extremely advanced training on complex flight simulators.

All of this was available to international terrorists—without any background checks in advance of obtaining their flight training!

Today, I introduced the Safe Skies Act of 2001, a tool to help flight instructors, school administrators and the nation identify and stop those terrorists, criminals and questionable flight students already known to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other agencies, from having unfettered access to our schools, instructors, and advanced training.

My legislation will require background checks for all current and future enrolled students. Students will be required to pay for the background check, conducted by the Federal Aviation Authority Administrator, with information provided by the FBI and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Under this legislation, an annual report will be prepared by the Administrator and sent to the applicable committees detailing the number of checks performed, number failed, and an outline of the reasons for failure.

Join me as we try to increase the safety of our skies and ensure that we are not enabling terrorists to be trained with skills that could be used to spread their evil throughout the United States.

Background checks may not catch all evildoers; however, they may have thwarted the terrorists' plans and attacks on our nation on September 11th. For more information on the Safe Skies Act, or to cosponsor this legislation, please contact Ronnie Whitaker in my office at 5-2501.

Sincerely,

/S

Ander Crenshaw
Member of Congress

September 21, 2001