Tressler Win: Jared A. Schneider Defends Certified Flight Instructor Against Federal Aviation Administration in Emergency Revocation Case
Tressler LLP’s Jared A. Schneider successfully defended a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) in an Emergency Revocation case brought by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in an effort to revoke the CFI’s commercial pilot and flight instructor certificates. The FAA alleged that the CFI caused his student to provide a “fraudulent or intentionally false statement” when the CFI erroneously changed a particular flight time entry in his student’s logbook.
The record reflects that the CFI was extremely exhausted from working extra hours while flying the flight school’s mechanics to repair a stranded aircraft. After returning late to the flight school, a day which consisted of nearly 15 hours of flight time in inclement weather, the CFI reviewed his student’s logbook to help determine if the student had enough cross-country time logged to qualify for a private pilot checkride. The CFI’s exhausted state led him to make more than one mistake, and he eventually told the student that one of his flight time entries was incorrect, and that he needed to add time to the entry, which coincidentally gave the student the exact amount of cross-country flight time needed to qualify for the checkride.
In preparation for the checkride, the Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) reviewed the student’s logbook and noticed the change. Upon the DPE’s own investigation, and after viewing certain flight school records, he determined that the new logbook entry was likely incorrect. The DPE cancelled the checkride and advised the local FAA representatives of his findings.
The FAA served the CFI with an Emergency Renovation and claimed the CFI intentionally falsified his student’s logbook entry. The CFI appealed the FAA’s decision and a trial was held. On cross-examination, the DPE testified that he was not sure how the new logbook entry was created and agreed that he had not come to the conclusion that the CFI made the change with an intent to deceive. Furthermore, the FAA inspector testified that he failed to include pertinent information in the enforcement investigative report. The judge determined that the CFI was honest and credible when he testified as to his exhaustion and the unfortunate series of mistakes that led him to believe the student’s logbook entry was incorrect and needed to be modified. The judge further indicated that the FAA inspector erred when he ignored the defense of exhaustion and the judge ruled that the CFI lacked the requisite intent to falsify the logbooks because he reasonably believed his change was proper and accurate.
The FAA subsequently appealed the trial judge’s decision to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The FAA argued that the judge’s finding that the CFI was credible was arbitrary, capricious and not based on the evidence. The FAA further argued that the judge’s determination that the CFI did not make intentionally false statements when he changed the logbook entry was contrary to the willful disregard doctrine, asserting that the CFI purposefully disregarded information when he caused the logbook entry to be changed.
The NTSB disagreed. The Board found no basis to overturn the trial judge’s decision and stated that the willful disregard standard functions as a subset of the intentional falsification standard, and where there is a question of willful disregard, the trial judge must make the credibility determination and assess whether one’s state of mind at the time of the conduct was tantamount to purposeful ignorance. Here, the trial judge determined the CFI was credible in his assertion that he believed his change of the entry was proper and accurate at the time he made it. For those reasons, the NTSB denied the FAA’s appeal, affirmed the trial judge’s finding that the FAA did not prove all the elements of intentionally falsification and reversed the FAA’s revocation of the CFI’s certificates. Click here to view the complete opinion and order.
Congratulations to Jared for this great result!
About Jared A. Schneider
Jared A. Schneider is a member of Tressler's national Transportation Practice Group. He is an experienced litigator who focuses his practice in the areas of aviation, insurance defense, civil and commercial litigation, appellate work and government law. Jared frequently represents component-part manufacturers, maintenance and overhaul facilities, fixed base operators (FBOs), mechanics and pilots in air crash cases and other aviation related litigation. He is also regularly retained in matters to defend or prosecute aircraft damage and hull claims, including those involving claims for loss of use, diminution in value and loss of revenue and profit. Jared provides valuable advice and support for aviation-related businesses, including drafting and negotiating aircraft sales agreements, aircraft rental agreements, aircraft management agreements, and dry and wet lease agreements. Jared can be reached at jschneider@tresslerllp.com.