Airplane News: FAA Reauthorization, Vitol Disputes NATA Claim, and Lawsuit Against the FAA

Welcome to your weekly General Aviation news update, and this week we have 3 stories for you; FAA Reauthorization appears close, Vitol disputes NATA Claim, and a class action lawsuit against the FAA.

First up, congress appeared this week to agree on language for a long term FAA authorization. The reauthorization is over 1,000 pages, with topics including fine increases for consumer violations, legislation over near collisions, quality control for large aircraft manufacturers, and FAA staffing. Congress now will need to vote in favor of the bill before it heads to the President’s desk. We’ll keep you updated when we see more. https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/bipartisan-congressional-approval-for-long-term-faa-reauthorization/ Next up is Vitol aviation and GAMI G100UL. Vitol Aviation has more than 1,000,000 gallons of GAMI G100UL for sale that the National Air Transportation Association says is not ready for sale. NATA says that without a fuel specification from ASTM International, furl suppliers and retailers “lack assurances that the unleaded fuel they are selling will not expose them to liability” and therefore cannot be commercially available. Vitol says it has had no issue getting insurance for the GAMI G100UL and that the fuel has an FAA approved specification. We’ll have to see if NATA’s claim hinders Vitol’s ability to bring the G100UL to market. https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/g100ul-maker-refutes-nata-claim-that-its-not-ready-to-sell/ Last up, the FAA is getting sued! A class action lawsuit filed this week states the FAA turned away more than 1000 qualified air traffic controller applicants due to discrimination. The lawsuit doesn’t state that incompetent controllers were hired, but rather that particular demographics of controllers were never given a chance to demonstrate their competency. The suit continues, stating that certain minority candidates were given “Buzz words” to bring their resumes to the top. Questions were also alleged to have been placed in the biographical questionnaire that were weighted to give certain candidates advantages, such as playing more than 4 sports in high school giving a candidate 5 points, while an applicant holding a pilot certificate only gave them 2 points. The questionnaire also omitted relevant experience as a military air traffic controller. We’ll keep you up to date with what we see from this lawsuit. https://simpleflying.com/faa-air-traffic-controller-applicants-lawsuit/ Alright, that’s it! Have a great week and we’ll see you next week.