Opinion ID: 719811
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Part 91.

Text: 16 Part 135 of the FAA regulations generally provide regulatory safeguards for air taxi passengers. 14 C.F.R. § 135.1. Part 91 provides more liberal operating rules for various kinds of flights, such as ferry or training flights, aerial survey work, free demonstrations of airplanes to prospective customers, and use by a company of its own airplane. 14 C.F.R. § 91.501. Mr. Wagner was certified to fly the Learjet under Part 91, but not under Part 135. The applicable subsection upon which he relies is for demonstration flights: 17 Flights for the demonstration of an airplane to prospective customers when no charge is made except for those specified in paragraph (d) of this section. 18 14 C.F.R. § 91.501(b)(3). Subsection (d) is an exception for certain passed on expenses, e.g., fuel and landing fees, 14 C.F.R. § 901(d), and no party claims that it applies to this case. 19 Mr. Wagner argues that the quoted exception applies, because he worked with Desert Airlines as an independent contractor, and the Sun World passengers were his regular customers and not just Desert Airlines'. The owner of the Learjet did not charge and neither did he. 20 We agree with the NTSB that the regulation must be applied based upon what the customers knew when its executives boarded the plane, not upon arrangements unknown to it between the owner and prospective purchaser of the airplane. The regulatory scheme is designed to assure the safety of air taxi passengers. A secondary purpose is to facilitate air commerce, by encouraging people to fly on airplanes secure in the knowledge that air commerce is heavily regulated to protect their safety. If a customer's executives are flying on a free demonstration flight to look over an aircraft for possible purchase, without all the Part 135 safeguards in place, the customer is entitled to know it. 21 The critical fact in the case at bar is that neither Sun World president Mr. Rinella nor the employee who booked the flight knew they were involved in a demonstration flight. Unless all customers making travel arrangements on a flight know that they are dealing with a demonstration of an airplane for which no charge will be made to some prospective purchaser of the aircraft, this Part 91 exception to Part 135 cannot apply. 1 22 We need not decide whether Mr. Wagner could have avoided discipline, had the evidence demonstrated that he reasonably believed that Sun World knew that this was a free demonstration flight. No evidence contradicted Mr. Rinella's testimony that when he asked about the Learjet, with Mr. Wagner standing there and talking to him, he heard at that time that the King Air was not available, this plane was being substituted but that the-not to be alarmed because the rate on the airplane would be identical to that for the King Air and that Desert Air was absorbing the difference. Mr. Wagner testified, but did not deny that this discussion had taken place or that he had said or heard the remark. 23 So far as Sun World knew, this was an ordinary commercial flight, of the type regulated by Part 135. Mr. Rinella and the employee who booked the flight might never have heard of Part 135, but they could assume that the usual regulatory scheme for commercial airplane flights was in place and protecting the passengers' safety. The company was to be charged, and it paid for the flight. Section 91.501(b)(3) requires that no charge be made for a demonstration flight. It is not a no charge flight if the customer is to pay for their carriage, whether or not the airline is to pay the aircraft's owner. Indeed when Mr. Rinella raised the question of why they were flying on a Learjet, he was told that his company would be charged the same rate as for a King Air. 24 Looking to the customers' reasonable expectation to determine the nature of the flight is consistent with NTSB precedent. See Administrator v. Southeast Air, Inc., 4 NTSB 517, 519 (1982); Administrator v. Cunningham, 5 NTSB 516, 519 (1985). It makes obvious sense. 25 PETITION DENIED.