A federal court has ruled the FAA must release aircraft registration information previously kept secret in a special program if it receives a Freedom of Information request. For about 10 years, private aircraft operators have been able to have their N numbers "blocked" from outside scrutiny under the National Business Aviation Association's Blocked Aircraft Registration Request (BARR)program. In late 2008, a non-profit investigative journalism Web site called ProPublica submitted an FOIA request to the FAA to release the list of BARR participants, claiming the owners of the aircraft were using the program to prevent public scrutiny of their use of the aircraft. The FOIA request came shortly after the Big Three automakers made headlines by using corporate aircraft to travel to Washington to ask for federal bailouts. NBAA went to court to block the release of the information citing security concerns, but on Friday a DC district court ruled the FOI requests must be honored but it did not extend the order to include real-time requests for information on aircraft.
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: Court Opens Blocked N Numbers?
