Foreign ownership of thousands of U.S. aircraft cloaked in secrecy

WFAA has learned Onalaska is ground zero for a practice that allows foreigners to anonymously register their planes, and one that critics say makes the United States an easy target for drug dealers, terrorists and other criminals seeking to register their planes.
Two of the planes registered to the trust company were named during a federal investigation of a massive drug-smuggling operation, according to federal court records filed in 2013.
In 2006, A U.S. bank became a trustee on an aircraft for a Lebanese politician who turned out to be "backed by a well-known U.S. Government-designated terrorist organization." "It wasn't until the bank found out that they were affiliated with Hezbollah that the relationship ended,"In 2012, an FAA inspector was unable to find out who was flying a Boeing 737 registered on behalf of a foreign owner. When the FAA contacted the foreign owner, officials were told the airplane had been leased to a United Arab Emirates-based rental company. The foreign owner couldn't "p

Foreign ownership of thousands of U.S. aircraft cloaked in secrecy

How is this even possible after 9/11??? two hours away from the biggest foreign owned oil refinery in the US and a history of known names being terrorist and drug cartel involvement? Not even an airport in the town!! This is outrageous Post 9/11 and The FAA WONT COMMENT ON IT? WTF?

Money talks and buys secrecy against proper and open FAA US plane registration.....

But We Citizens HAVE to register Drones with the FAA???? But Foreign Nationals can Register PLANES anonymously ?

The potential penalties for failing to register are potentially steep— civil penalties up to $27,500 and criminal penalties up to $250,000 or three years in jail.Dec 13, 2017

Backwards Much FAA?

a reply to: TheJesuit

How is this even possible after 9/11???

Because deep within the confines of the US government lies the most vicious terrorist organisation in human history

a reply to: TheJesuit

*cough*CIA*cough*

Obviously it's that way so that certain entities can run ops using planes that can't be traced.

But that's none of my business.

An aircraft is eligible for U.S. Registration if it is not registered in another country and it is owned by:

An individual who is a United States citizen,
A partnership each of whose partners is an individual who is a U.S. citizen,
A corporation or association:
organized under the laws of the U.S. or a State, the District of Columbia, or a U.S. territory or possession,
of which the president and at least two-thirds of the board of directors and other managing officers are U.S citizens, and
in which at least 75% of the voting interest is owned or controlled by persons that are U.S. citizens,
An individual citizen of a foreign country lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the U.S.,
A U.S. governmental unit or subdivision
A non-U.S. citizen corporation organized and doing business under the laws of the U.S. or one of the States as long as the aircraft is based and primarily used in the U.S. (60% of all flight hours must be from flights starting and ending within the U.S.)

www.faa.gov...

Under 49 USC 44102, as noted above, aircraft can legally be registered to corporations not from the US, as long as they are doing business within the US, the aircraft is based in the US, and the majority of its flight time starts and ends within the US. There is no requirement to have individual names on the aircraft registration.

a reply to: TheJesuit

Saw this on the news a couple days ago and still have the website up. What got me was it cost only 5 dollars to register any plane. Link to planes registered to foreign owners at site below.

link to FFA

I really am not understanding the low registration fee. If you can afford a plane, you can darn well pay more to register. What does FFA get out of this?

a reply to: liveandlearn

Because if you look at the recent database, in the last 30 days alone, there are 62 pages of aircraft registered. That's roughly 3100 aircraft in 30 days, which comes out to over $15,000. Keeping the cost low also makes sure that registrations are kept up to date. Just because you own an aircraft doesn't mean you're in the top 1%.

Here is the official audit report from Office of Inspector General that the article references:

www.oig.dot.gov...