[Link to https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-moves-protect-aircraft-owners-private-information]From now on, it is optional to indicate the owner of US aircraft in the public register. This was announced by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Owners can request that their name no longer appear publicly. The authority is also considering keeping the information secret.

The change fulfills a long-held wish of prominent billionaires, including Elon Musk. Although the man considers himself a “free speech absolutist”, he does not want the flight movements of his jet to be publicly reported. Musk has blocked relevant accounts on his microblogging website; billionaire Mark Zuckerberg has all accounts relating to celebrities' private flights blocked by Meta Platforms. Anyone who wants to know where the billionaires are jetting around can now find out on Mastodon.

Of course, Elon Musk and other wealthy people have not appeared in the public FAA register before. This is because their airplanes and helicopters generally belong to intermediary corporations or trusts, often with an address in the US state of Utah. A bank there has specialized in such aircraft trusts. The reasons for this are tax advantages and the fact that the FAA register is only open to US owners or aircraft primarily used in the USA. The legal route for foreigners is therefore to set up a trust or company in the USA, whose aircraft is then legally entered in the US register. In Musk's case, the company is based in California and is called Falcon Landing, LLC.

This name will disappear from the public FAA register as soon as the corresponding application has been processed. The real impact is open. The celebrities affected by the public interest in their travels are prominent. They are recognized by their faces. This means that the license plates painted on their jets will get around quickly in interested circles, even if the public FAA register no longer shows that the aircraft officially belongs to the Bank of Utah. As a countermeasure, those affected could regularly change their aircraft license plates.

The FAA received the mandate for the data protection measure from the US federal legislator at the beginning of 2024. According to the authority, it is now consulting the aviation industry to find out whether the concealment of the respective legal owner could cause difficulties with maintenance, safety inspections or other compliance with legal regulations.

(ds)