Foreign Repair Stations To Get Green Light

In a Nov. 4 letter, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Acting-Administrator Robert Sturgell responded to Representative John Mica’s (R-FL-7) concerns regarding the handling of Pre-application Statements of Intent (PASI) under Notice 8900.47. The Notice was issued in response to the freeze placed on initial certification of foreign repair stations because the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) failed to issue a final rule on part 145 repair station security by a congressionally mandated Aug. 3, 2008 deadline.

Under Notice 8900.47, applications received prior to August 3 were to be evaluated in accordance with Order 8900.92 and FAA management would assess agency resources and determine the status. If the status was "green" prior to Aug. 3, the application will be considered to be "in process" and the normal certification process would follow. The result was that many repair stations that filed a PASI before the Aug. 3 deadline were not given "green" status due to international field office resource constraints and therefore were not deemed to be "in process." These repair stations would be forced to wait until the freeze was lifted to apply for initial certification.

Rep. Mica, who serves as ranking member on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, requested that Sturgell alter the Notice to allow all stations that submitted a PASI prior to Aug. 3 to have their respective applications considered “in process” pending the availability of field office resources. This would prevent these stations from having to wait until the TSA issues the repair station security final rule.

Sturgell responded in the Nov. 4 letter by stating that all international field offices will soon receive amended guidance that all applications received prior to Aug. 3 be considered "in process" whether or not current field office resources allow a "green" status.

The response from Acting Administrator Sturgell may be found here.

A copy of Notice 8900.47 may be found here.