The FAA recently amended its enforcement guidelines for dealing with airmen who violate temporary flight restriction (“TFR”) airspace. In the past, when the FAA alleged that an airman violated a TFR, and the incident was a first-time, inadvertent violation by the airman, that airman would receive a Notice of Proposed Certificate Action (“Notice”) proposing suspension of his or her airman certificate for 30 days for violation of a variety of regulations. This was the FAA’s “shoot from the hip”, no questions asked approach. And once the Notice was issued, the FAA conceded very little, if anything, from that 30 day suspension. Now, however, it appears the FAA may have recognized that this approach wasn’t necessarily the best way of dealing with these types of violations. In June of this year, the FAA amended Order 2150.3(b), the FAA’s compliance and enforcement program, to change its approach to dealing with first-time, inadvertent TFR violators. According to the FAA, it is modifying its policy to provide more flexibility in dealing with TFR violators with the intent of reducing “the number of violations occurring in security airspace by using remedial training in appropriate circumstances to prevent repeated inadvertent violations.” I’m not sure why it took the FAA this long to figure out that remedial training might be a better alternative to a suspension, but better late than never, I guess. Under the amended guidelines, the FAA will apply the following sanction policy to TFR violations:
Unfortunately, informal counseling, whether oral or written, is not a permitted alternative for the FAA to deal with TFR violations. However, at least now the FAA has the option of remedial training to educate, rather than punish, inadvertent violators. Of course, this amended policy begs the question of what constitutes an “inadvertent” violation. Depending upon the FAA’s interpretation of “inadvertent”, which in the past hasn’t always been the most reasonable, the amended policy may be for naught. But the amended policy definitely appears to be a step in the right direction. Hopefully, this more enlightened approach, and the voice of reason, will prevail in the future. In any event, airmen should continue to check for NOTAMS, understand the scope of any TFR NOTAMS issued for their route of flight, obtain appropriate flight service briefings and updates, and either avoid TFRs or comply with the applicable requirements for operation within the TFR. Fly smart and stay safe. |
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