Opinion ID: 618220
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Aging C402 Aircraft Inspection

Text: As of July 2006, Air Sunshine had operated a fleet of C402 aircraft for 24 years, and those aircraft needed inspection to be in compliance with 14 C.F.R. § 135.422. That provision requires certain aging planes to be inspected before they may continue in service. [4] The same month, Air Sunshine requested FAA inspection and certification. The period in which this inspection needed to take place expired on December 8, 2008. Air Sunshine alleges it made unspecified repeated pleas for inspection and received an unspecified promise to extend the deadline for the inspection to take place. No details are alleged, and it is not alleged that Carl, who had no responsibility as to Air Sunshine before August 2008, was in any way involved. On December 8, 2008, Air Sunshine's scheduling authority automatically expired. The next day, Carl informed Air Sunshine that an extension was not possible and that Air Sunshine had lost its authority to schedule operations. Still, on December 11, 2008, Carl told Air Sunshine that his assistant would conduct the inspection. On December 16, however, Carl told Air Sunshine that his assistant could not perform the inspection of the fleet alone, and instead a team would be needed. On January 20, 2009, Air Sunshine informed Carl that it had hired a former FAA inspector to complete the inspection. However, Carl refused to accept the inspection, pending approval of a revision to a manual; Air Sunshine claims no such revision was required, and presumably it did not submit one. As a result, the inspection was never completed, and Air Sunshine's loss of scheduling authority resulted in the consequent loss of Air Sunshine's ability to bid for government contracts.