Opinion ID: 450361
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: conclusion

Text: 41 Petitioners contend that they deserve exemptions and ask this court to order the FAA to grant full exemptions until the hush kits are installed on their aircraft. Intervenors would have us affirm the denial of exemptions to Tradewinds and Carefree and reverse the partial grant to Airmark. These requests assume, however, that this court can and must determine the correct exemption criteria that should be applied in these circumstances. It is for the FAA, however, and not this court, to determine the circumstances in which exemptions should be granted or denied. As shown above, the FAA has utterly failed to provide a consistent approach that would allow even a guess as to what the decisional criteria are or should be. As this court recently stated, we have neither the expertise nor the authority to substitute our judgment for that of the agency and provide an explanation where the agency's path is entirely uncharted. International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States, 735 F.2d 1525, 1531 (D.C.Cir.1984). See also United States v. Diapulse Corp., 748 F.2d 56, 62 (2d Cir.1984). 42 Accordingly, we vacate the denial of exemptions to Carefree and Tradewinds 39 and the partial grant to Airmark. Petitioners shall have thirty days from the issuance of this opinion to reapply for exemptions. The stays currently in force for these petitioners shall be extended for these thirty days. Should the carriers file new petitions within this time period, the FAA shall have a reasonable time to determine whether the carrier should be granted or denied an exemption 40 and the stays will remain in effect until 10 days following the order of the FAA. 43 We will not prescribe particular criteria for the FAA to apply; the FAA retains broad discretion to determine whether the public interest will be best served by granting or denying petitions. We must insist, however, that the FAA act upon the petitions in a consistent manner and that any deviation from prior rulings be carefully reasoned and fully explained. 44 So Ordered.