Well-Known Aviation Community Members Had A Bad Weekend, But It Could Have Been Much Worse

The NBAA responded Monday to the weekend's reported gun-point detainment of two industry figures by calling for a review of the government's process for obtaining, using and sharing aircraft registration information.

In a story broken first by ANN, King School founders John and Martha King were reportedly detained by the Santa Barbara police Saturday, based on faulty aircraft information maintained by various government agencies. The Kings are two well-known and highly respected professionals within the general aviation community, and the school they founded is a Member Company with the Association.

"We believe there is an urgent need for the creation of a joint government-industry group that can expeditiously conduct a top-to-bottom review of the process to ensure that incidents such as this one never occur in the future," said NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen (pictured).

"We recognize that law enforcement officials need to have a reliable source of up-to-date aircraft information to prevent illegal activities," Bolen continued.  "At the same time, we believe the government process for using the data appears woefully inadequate. This isn't the first time outdated information has resulted in a situation like the one involving the Kings, but we want it to be the last. We're asking government leaders to look at this unfortunate event as an opportunity for industry and government to collaborate on a solution that will prevent similar incidents in the future."

FMI: www.nbaa.org