Airline Background Check
 

If this is the wrong place to post this please forgive me. I just have a question in regards to the background check for pilots entering an airline. Can anyone tell me in regards to a "sealed criminal record" is the FAA allowed to view that information if a court order was issued for that information to be sealed at both the federal and state level.

My friend, it's not the FAA, it's the TSA. TSA is running America. Judges and laws be damned.

If the offense was entered into the NCIC, it's discoverable by the TSA.

Answer ALL background check type questions with COMPLETE honesty! That said, also don't offer any info that was not specifically asked for. Don't ever try to cover up. It will haunt you for the rest of your career because it is grounds for termination if it ever comes to light. Best of luck.

I understand that information in the NCIC is available to the TSA. But once a record is sealed they forward that order to NCIC and the NCIC honors the sealed order and will not report the incidence only under very particular circumstances such as employment with a law enforcement agency/criminal trial etc.

......or employment in a security sensitive field - - - - like aviation.

USMCFLYR

Tmc07d, what is the objective of your question? If your trying to figure out if the TSA will find an offense in your record: TSA will find anything that comes up with your finger prints in the FBI database. TSA doesn't care about any offenses other than the 36 disqualifying ones.

If your trying to find out if a potential airline will find the offense: airlines will do the same FBI fingerprint background check and a regular background check. If your records were expunged, the background check will still show the offense you were convicted of but instead of the disposition reading "convicted" it will read "dismissed".

You legally can answer the question of have you ever been convicted of a crime with no. In fact quite a few airline apps say "do not answer yes if state law prohibits" regarding criminal background. Post conviction relief is well worth the money.

FYI all, TSA does not conduct a CHRC nor does the FAA. The airline submits your prints and evaluates the "Hits" that are returned. TSA never touches it. The Transportation Security Clearinghouse, run by AAAE, routed the prints to the FBI and posts the results on a secure website for the airline to review. The only part of the backround check that TSA directly adjudicates is the Security Threat Assessment (STA). This portion of the check consists of comparing your biographical data to certain sub-sets of the watchlist and to immigration databases. The result will be an "issue" or "Do not issue" order to the airline or airport.

Oh yeah, there are not 36 disqualifying offenses. To view the list, search for 49CFR1544.

They can probably still see it, but it will be flagged as sealed or dismissed or something like that.

One gotcha in the airline world is state employment law. Different states have different rules about what an employer can and cannot ask, and when you interview at the airlines HQ you can bet that they know exactly what their limits are. An applicant would probably be more protected in say CA vice TX. Hmmmm..not too many airlines interview in CA, but I can think of about 6 in TX.

I don't believe there is much if any federal law that would help you here, so if the state law in question allows the airline to ask about something,you don't report it and then federal law allows them to view your history they could use that as basis to not hire you (or fire you if you already started ground school).

The safest course is probably to report everything which they ask for. If they clearly are NOT asking for something, do NOT report it. But if there's grey area don't try to wiggle out of it.

Alternatively you could get a comprehensive (and expensive) legal review of state law prior to each interview so you know exactly where the line is drawn in the interview state. Be careful with advice from non-aviation lawyers...they may not be aware of how the TSA-mandated background checks work.