Attorney Secures 20% Reduction In ADIZ Violation Penalty For Sheaffer

So while the use of an attorney to plea bargain with the FAA was
successful, the issue of the appropriates of FAA's use of emergency
revocation was not challenged. It would be interesting to know the
price in attorney's fees for those two months.


-------------------------------------------------------------
AOPA ePilot Volume 7, Issue 24 June 17, 2005
-------------------------------------------------------------
PILOT MAKES DEAL WITH FAA FOR VIOLATING D.C. AIRSPACE
Pennsylvania pilot Hayden "Jim" Sheaffer will be kept out of the
left seat for at least 10 months for violating the heavily
restricted airspace around the nation's capital on May 11. Late
Tuesday evening, Sheaffer and his attorney reached an agreement
with the FAA on the revocation of his pilot certificate. In
exchange for dropping his appeal of that revocation, the FAA will
allow him to reapply for his certificate in 10 months, rather than
12. (One year is usually standard following an emergency
revocation.) See AOPA's Overview of FAA Enforcement
( http://www.aopa.org/members/files/guides/enforce.html ).
Sheaffer was scheduled to appear before an NTSB administrative law
judge Wednesday and Thursday to appeal the emergency revocation.
For more, see AOPA Online
( http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsite...50615adiz.html ).

Bummer, they should have thrown the book at him. I was amazed when he
did his interview on NBC's morning show. He claimed everyone did
something wrong but him! When they asked him what he should have done
different he said, "I should have turned after the first helicopter
told me to"!! How about "I should have planned better and not flown
into the ADIZ", that would have been nice. When you're caught red
handed, don't blame everyone else. Confess, say you're sorry and take
your lumps.

-Robert

Robert M. Gary wrote:

Confess, say you're sorry and take your lumps.

The sense of personal responsibility Americans once had seems to have been
long lost now. It seems the generation that came of age just before the
Great Depression were the last ones to show this to any significant degree.
Shaeffer's antics confirm to me that he doesn't have such a sense of
responsibility.

I've tried to drill into my family:
Mistakes are expected. It's not so much the mistake that matters as much as
how you deal with the mistake.

"Confess, say you're sorry, take your lumps." I'd add "and learn from it".

--
John T
http://tknowlogy.com/TknoFlyer
http://www.pocketgear.com/products_s...veloperid=4415
Reduce spam. Use Sender Policy Framework: http://spf.pobox.com
____________________

On 17 Jun 2005 09:17:13 -0700, "Robert M. Gary"
wrote:

Bummer, they should have thrown the book at him. I was amazed when he
did his interview on NBC's morning show. He claimed everyone did
something wrong but him! When they asked him what he should have done
different he said, "I should have turned after the first helicopter
told me to"!! How about "I should have planned better and not flown
into the ADIZ", that would have been nice. When you're caught red
handed, don't blame everyone else. Confess, say you're sorry and take
your lumps.

From an ethical standpoint, I agree with you. However, from a
practical standpoint, he did get his 'sentence' reduced, so how he
blamed everyone else was the right thing to do. Welcome to America.
It's disappointing, isn't it?

John T wrote:

The sense of personal responsibility Americans once had seems to have been
long lost now.

A problem in this case is that the penalty is [obviously] subject to
negotiation. The FAA has set up this game, and it's in our best interests
to play it (since we cannot eliminate it).

Had this fellow admitted guilt in public, his "game hand" would have been
compromised. I expect that that would have, if nothing else, raised his
legal bill laugh.

I've no idea whether or not he admits his mistake in private. I hope he
does, as absent admission of error there's no chance for correction. But
once one is involved in this silly quasi-legal game with the FAA, the rules
are different than those in normal human interaction.

- Andrew

P.S. Though it certainly seems a lot of work for two months. I
cannot decide which surprises me mo that his lawyer took
that deal, or that the FAA offered it.

On Fri, 17 Jun 2005 19:06:26 GMT, Nathan Young
wrote in
::

Welcome to America. It's disappointing, isn't it?

I hear Sadam is requesting a change of venue to Santa Maria,
California. :-)

On 17 Jun 2005 09:17:13 -0700, "Robert M. Gary"
wrote in . com::

Bummer, they should have thrown the book at him.

You mean the FAA should have fined him? Given the questionable
security policy in effect, a fine may have caused him to fund a more
serious legal attack on the entire security implementation. I doubt
the current regime would have relished that.

At least Sheaffer will presumably have to pass written and practical
examinations before he flies again. If he is able to find a DE
willing to sign him off, he'll probably be sharp enough for us to
comfortably share the skies with. From what I've seen/read, he seems
of average intelligence, and lacked recent flight experience for
several years.

Of course, despite its alleged conferring of wisdom, age also takes
its toll.

Careful there!

denny - mean old man...

Larry,

I've got to respectfully disagree with the title of this thread.

The attorney was able to negotiate only a tiny reduction in the
penalty, the guy still got the FAA's version of the death penalty,
revocation. That means all certificates and ratings are gone. The
only thing the guy keeps is his flying time. It's not like a
suspension where he gets his certificate back after a certain period of
time. He has to take the written and practical tests all over again.
With the intelligence he demonstrated on TV, it's doubtful he'll be
able to pass either one. The attorney was able to get the time he has
to wait before starting that process reduced by two months. Big deal.
That's not unusual at all; had the guy been negotiating for himself, he
probably could have gotten that sort of deal. Had the FAA been in the
mood to negotiate at all, they'd have dropped the thing to a very long
suspension, but they weren't and they didn't.

What has to be kept in mind is that this guy screwed up, but his screw
up was probably not intentional, just monumentally stupid/ignorant
given the airspace involved. I don't know if he filed an ASRS report.
If he did, there is a pretty good chance that he could have used it as
a get out of jail free card. The FAA may have been in a box in that it
might have had a hard time proving that one of the violations of which
the guy was accused was intentional and therefore he couldn't use the
ASRS immunity.

A civil penalty (fine) was probably not an option under the procedures
in the regs, especially where the max penalty is $1,100 per occurrence
(I still don't know how many regs the guy was accused of violating) so
the total dollar amount wouldn't have been all that high. A revocation
is a much nastier sanction.

The only tougher sanction the FAA can give is if an airplane is used in
conjunction with an illegal drug flight or operation. There the pilot
gets revoked but can never, ever reapply for certificates. It's over
for him or her in this country.

The guy got the toughest hammer the FAA could give him under our laws
(and pilots claim that the FAA is way too tough on pilots...this is the
first time I've heard pilots say the FAA is too lenient g). They
threw the book at him. There just plain isn't anything tougher in the
book. So what if he gets to retake his written and practical in 10
months rather than 12, he's probably history as a pilot. If he ever
goes for a flight test I suspect that the DPE would cut him no slack
whatsoever.

He just reminds me of a quote some years back from a cop friend of
mine, "Remember, there are only two crimes, stupidity and aggravated
stupidity."

Warmest regards,
Rick

Thanks Rick for a different point of view, I (and doubtless others) were
assuming that the penalty was a suspension for ten months. I didn't realize
that it was a revocation and that he has to pass all the tests again.

Would an ASRS really have gotten him off? He intentionally flew into the
ADIZ.

Thanks

Mike
MU-2

wrote in message
oups.com...
Larry,

I've got to respectfully disagree with the title of this thread.

The attorney was able to negotiate only a tiny reduction in the
penalty, the guy still got the FAA's version of the death penalty,
revocation. That means all certificates and ratings are gone. The
only thing the guy keeps is his flying time. It's not like a
suspension where he gets his certificate back after a certain period of
time. He has to take the written and practical tests all over again.
With the intelligence he demonstrated on TV, it's doubtful he'll be
able to pass either one. The attorney was able to get the time he has
to wait before starting that process reduced by two months. Big deal.
That's not unusual at all; had the guy been negotiating for himself, he
probably could have gotten that sort of deal. Had the FAA been in the
mood to negotiate at all, they'd have dropped the thing to a very long
suspension, but they weren't and they didn't.

What has to be kept in mind is that this guy screwed up, but his screw
up was probably not intentional, just monumentally stupid/ignorant
given the airspace involved. I don't know if he filed an ASRS report.
If he did, there is a pretty good chance that he could have used it as
a get out of jail free card. The FAA may have been in a box in that it
might have had a hard time proving that one of the violations of which
the guy was accused was intentional and therefore he couldn't use the
ASRS immunity.

A civil penalty (fine) was probably not an option under the procedures
in the regs, especially where the max penalty is $1,100 per occurrence
(I still don't know how many regs the guy was accused of violating) so
the total dollar amount wouldn't have been all that high. A revocation
is a much nastier sanction.

The only tougher sanction the FAA can give is if an airplane is used in
conjunction with an illegal drug flight or operation. There the pilot
gets revoked but can never, ever reapply for certificates. It's over
for him or her in this country.

The guy got the toughest hammer the FAA could give him under our laws
(and pilots claim that the FAA is way too tough on pilots...this is the
first time I've heard pilots say the FAA is too lenient g). They
threw the book at him. There just plain isn't anything tougher in the
book. So what if he gets to retake his written and practical in 10
months rather than 12, he's probably history as a pilot. If he ever
goes for a flight test I suspect that the DPE would cut him no slack
whatsoever.

He just reminds me of a quote some years back from a cop friend of
mine, "Remember, there are only two crimes, stupidity and aggravated
stupidity."

Warmest regards,
Rick