The National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI), an IAFTP Affiliate Member, reported in its 25 July edition of eMentor that the U.S. Government Accountability Office says some foreign flight students enter the U.S. illegally without proper vetting. According to NAFI, there is significant concern that any potential remedy for this perceived problem must not limit the ability of the flight training community to provide training to customers.
According to one press report (The Hill), TSA has defended its handling of foreign flight training, which is done through a program known as the Alien Flight Student Program.
“Under the [AFSP] program, non-U.S. citizens seeking to undergo Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certified flight training are required to submit to a rigorous background screening that includes a name-based terrorism check, a name-based immigration check, a fingerprint-based criminal history records check, submittal of security documents including passport copies, and specific information about their desired training events,” TSA Manager for General Aviation Kerwin Wilson said in testimony submitted to the panel.
Wilson said he agreed with lawmakers that foreign flight students had to be thoroughly checked, but he said it was important to the U.S. economy to offer flight training to students from other nationalities.
Here is the complete GAO report.
Here are related stories from ABC, The Hill and AOPA.
Is this only a U.S. problem or does it relate to the much broader challenge of verifying individual pilot identity and competency throughout our global industry?
July 28th, 2012 | 
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The National Association of Flight Instructors is currently working with the TSA and other aviation associations to further discuss and potentially provide solution to questions relating to the vetting and authorization process for non-US citizens and further to the question of vetting of US citizens compared to the federal “no-fly list.”
As this process moves forward some initial questions are being addressed. The first that will need to be clarified is whether there is a regulator or legal basis by which a flight training provider is able to deny provision of training to an individual who has been added to the “no-fly list” at this time. While we recognize that established procedure is in place to disallow individuals on this list to transit on commercial aircraft, it is unclear at this time if the same procedure is applicable to what in effect is a mode of personal travel, flying a personal aircraft. in fact, some could argue it would be the equivalent of disallowing an individual on the list to travel in a personal car. While philosophically, any of us may agree or disagree with barring someone on the “no-fly” list from pursuing flight training, if we are in fact to do so we must make sure that the regulatory or legal basis to do so has been properly established for a basis of action.
NAFI is confident that established process for vetting of non-US flight training candidates is robust and being well conducted by the TSA. It is recognized that in a couple of rare cases, training was conducted without properly complying with this process, and in these cases the providers and trainees have been caught and the situation has been dealt with by the TSA and/or other governmental agencies. The process is being well adhered to by the overwhelming majority of flight training providers and NAFI believes that the TSA and flight training community are successfully vetting non-US flight training candidates.
For US citizens, it is the understanding of NAFI that individuals with a pilot certificate (Sport Pilot, Recreational Pilot, Private Pilot, Commercial Pilot, ATP) are continually vetted against the “no-fly” list as a collaborative effort between the FAA and other governmental agencies. Any potential risk of having an individual who might appear on the “no-fly” list receiving flight training at this time appears to be limited to the time prior to certification. This would be the time period where any individual receiving flight training would be limited in authorized activity by instructor endorsement, to limited time periods, limited aircraft, and limited range of operations. In fact, for the majority of this time the individual is with the instructor, except for the short periods of solo flight they conduct.
The risk of these moments is a small window in the training window. Indication that this risk is a small window should in no way be construed as an indication that NAFI is dismissing the consideration. NAFI will be working with TSA and other aviation associations to respond to the current Congressional Bill and request to remedy any potential risk here.
As this process continues, the goal is to alleviate any concern of a security risk for our aviation community, while ensuring that any procedural efforts are conducted in a logical manner that is in accordance with established regulatory and/or legal basis, and in a manner that is not obstructionist to the conduct of flight training in the United States.
We will be providing more information after some upcoming discussions and are confident that a good solution can be developed that allows flight training providers to expeditiously continue flight training for customers while at the same time helping remedy any potential security gaps in our training system.
Part of the solution to the TSA’s problem now exists as does a solution to the much broader global challenge of verifying individual pilot identity and competency. We strongly believe that this is provided by the IAFTP eCV.
The IAFTP eCV system collects identity, skill, qualification, and certification data and enables the generation of a personal identification credential that can be used to securely authenticate the identity of an individual and, thereafter, retrieve skill, qualification, certification data, and/or other personal information for that individual. This includes information from public databases.
The IAFTP eCV system provides a method for personal identification ensuring that when data is collected, authenticated, or used, the individual’s identity can be positively verified through the use of eye-readable and/or machine-readable biometric identification features securely contained in or on an ICAO-compliant personal identification credential.
For more information: http://iaftp.org/about-iaftp/electronic-cv/
Results of NAFI Poll on Instructors Checking Students against “No-Fly” List:
“Last week we asked for member input relating to the recent GAO concern about vetting U.S. citizens for flight training against the “No-Fly” list. We asked if you thought that flight instructors should be required to verify that someone seeking flight training does not appear on the “No-Fly” list prior to providing any training. The largest number of members (49 percent) responded that someone should, but it shouldn’t be a flight instructor’s job. Roughly 21 percent indicated maybe, that it depends on why the person is on the “No-Fly” list. Another 15 percent said yes, people on the “No-Fly” list shouldn’t be able to be pilots. Fewer, 7 percent, said no, people on the “No-Fly” list should be able to fly personally. And 9 percent thought that they didn’t know enough to make a decision. This is an issue that NAFI continues to work on and will be providing more information about to members in the future.”
(Source: NAFI eMentor, 22 Aug 12)
Pilot Documents Forged in Russian Plane Crash.
Here’s another situation in which the IAFTP eCV might have made a difference. The pilot of a Russian charter aircraft that crashed last year, wiping out a professional Russian ice hockey team, had been granted permission to fly based on forged documents. A possible contributing factor is the serious lack of qualified pilots in Russia.
http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/8345236/russian-airline-industry-regulations-tightened-one-year-tragic-lokomotiv-crash
“Six pilots of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) were sacked for holding fake degrees, while five hundreds others airline staffers were also found to have bogus credentials … ”
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/national/07-Dec-2012/six-pia-pilots-sacked-for-holding-fake-credentials
Another situation where the IAFTP eCV might have made a difference.
Two more incidents of false pilot credentials have been reported:
Airline pilot with fake license sentenced by Dutch court
http://news.aviation-safety.net/2012/12/28/airline-pilot-with-fake-license-sentenced-by-dutch-court/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Unlicensed pilot stalls unairworthy Learjet following fuel starvation
http://news.aviation-safety.net/2012/12/20/report-unlicensed-pilot-stalls-unairworthy-learjet-following-fuel-starvation/