This would reduce the internal and external political pressure on the regions. It also would help to assure that the policy with respect to such actions, whether de jure or de facto , was at least coordinated, with all of the consequences carefully thought through. The present statutory scheme for certificate action has no more than the slight aroma of due process and is one of the few instances in federal law where a person is guilty until proven innocent. The certificate holder has the right to appeal the order to the NTSB, with the order automatically stayed. While the NTSB has sixty days to decide an emergency appeal, it might as well be sixty years.
Few carriers can survive the cessation of operations for even a few days.
The NTSB then would have not more than 48 hours to decide whether an emergency existed, with the burden on the FAA to establish that proposition. This, at least in theory, would provide a modicum of due process, although more so for airmen than for air carriers. The thought that the DOT has an armed, plainclothes police force roaming the nation is more than a little alarming. Even more alarming is the fact that certificate action can be accompanied by armed searches and seizures conducted by the Office of the Inspector General. Non-programmatic enforcement activities by Inspectors General of other federal agencies have been successfully challenged.