The Federal Aviation Administration is making a big push to raise awareness about the pitfalls of illegal charter flight services and what’s fast becoming an expensive problem.
In 2020, the FAA proposed $8.3 million in civil penalties against six operators since March, including a $5.89 million penalty against Humes McCoy Aviation of Atlanta, Georgia, for conducting hundreds of allegedly illegal charter flights. The FAA alleges Humes McCoy operated a Cessna Caravan, Beechcraft Super King Air and CASA 212-200 on a total of 270 illegal cargo flights in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
The flights were illegal because the charter company did not have a commercial operating certificate, advertised and offered to perform operations that required such a certificate, the FAA alleges, as well as received compensation for the flights, and used pilots who had not passed required tests.
