Charter & Fractional
Questions linger in wake of AMI certificate action
Multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests submitted to the FAA by AIN generated some additional information– but no big surprises–about th

Multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests submitted to the FAA by AIN generated some additional information– but no big surprises–about the agency’s investigation and subsequent revocation of the charter certificate of AMI Jet Charter (AIN, November 2007, page 1). The material does not answer any lingering questions about the AMI situation, particularly why the agency took issue with AMI’s safety of operation and why it believed it might be able to refer AMI to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution.

The FAA began investigating AMI Jet Charter last March, and while insiders suspected that the agency was focusing on operational control issues, the FAA would never comment about the nature of the investigation, nor did it even tell AMI personnel why it was conducting the investigation. AMI at the time was owned in part (49 percent) by TAG Aviation USA, a division of Switzerland-based TAG Holding.