FAA Letter of Investigation
 

A friend received a letter of investigation about 3 years ago. Case was closed with “no action taken”.

According to her, the FAA expunged the record of investigation after 90 days. New employer application asks for a laundry list of things that have ever occurred with the FAA to include ever receiving a LOI. Does she need to put this on the app? She doesn’t think so since it’s been expunged. I say yes since she did receive it and explain that nothing came of it and it’s not on her pria.

In your experience, what direction would you steer her?

1. Get a copy of your FAA record. Use FOIA so you get all of it (minus active investigations IIRC).

2. You can look in the new online pilot records database right now, but be aware that is NOT complete yet so the absence of any particular record is not conclusive yet.

3. If they ask "have you ever" that's what they mean. Whether the paperwork is still readily available is not relevant. If you choose to lie and they find out, you'll be toast. If you're already employed they'll fire you and that WILL show up via PRIA.

Conventional wisdom is don't lie to airlines.

I would disclose it for sure. I’ve seen my fair share of pilots getting pulled out of Indoc class on day 1 or 2 never to be seen again due to failing to disclose things like this.

Be honest. Every time I hear a story about someone not being forthcoming in an interview, they always regret it in the end. Just be upfront, and tell them how you learned from the experience. They aren’t looking for perfection, but integrity is huge. They have ways of finding things in your background that you wouldn’t think they could. My 2 cents.

Tell her to RTFQ. The answer would be yes.


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I agree with all of you and am in full agreement of disclosing everything - especially when it comes to hiring.

Sending her the link to this thread now. Case closed.

Letter of Investigation is exactly what it says it is.
They are investigating if you have possible been in violation of.
Case closed is still case closed.
Acknowledge it.

As a future employer I’d want to know, even for a CFI position.
Would like to know the why.
Because you landed gear up and they decided to let it slide or was it some paperwork glitch when you were a student pilot?
Did you manage do accumulate 9 in the last 3 years maybe you’re not hiring material.

It’s the equivalent of have you ever been convicted for any crime vs have you ever been arrested for any crime question.

I received a LOI about three years ago for failure to report a DUI conviction within 60 days. What happened was I reported it to the aeromedical side but they never sent it to the security division. When I received the letter I immediately called and resolved the problem. The FAA investigator acknowledged it was a error on the agencies part, closed the case. I looked online, called and requested my FAA file and there’s no record what so ever.

Do I need to report this even if the letter was sent in error?

Yes, because you’re going to have to disclose the DUI anyway, and this will allow you to knock out both issues with one story. Since the issue is with the FAA, you shouldn’t worry. Again, if you have to ask yourself “should I disclose”, the answer is YES. They WILL find out if you don’t.

FARs actually require YOU to report it to FAA security. So I don't think you have a good case that the LOI was erroneous. Anyone familiar with the rule would probably agree with me. But it's a common mistake, doubt it would hurt you any more than the dui.