Lawmaker pushes for safer pilot licenses

Five years after Congress passed a law requiring the Federal Aviation Administration to replace paper licenses for commercial pilots with tamper-resistant identification cards that include pilots' photos and biometric data, the agency has not done so. FAA has issued plastic ID cards, however, but they do not include photos or biometric identifiers. A Florida lawmaker wants to know why.

In a letter to the heads of FAA, the Homeland Security Department and the Transportation Security Administration, Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., demanded to know why the agency was flouting the law.

The 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, Public Law 108-458, mandated that by December 2005 FAA begin issuing improved pilot licenses that include a photograph of the licensee and are capable of accommodating a digital photograph, biometric identifier, "or any other unique identifier." In his letter, Mica said he became aware of the issue recently when a pilot asked Mica to look at his FAA license.

Although commercial pilot licenses are no longer paper, they still do not include a biometric chip or photograph. Currently, the only photo image is one of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Mica noted.

"It is mind-boggling that six years later, after spending millions of dollars, the FAA license does not include the pilot's photo, or any biometric measures," Mica, ranking Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in a statement.

"It's a deadline which has passed and [it's] certainly time to check up on this and see why it hasn't be done," said Justin Harclerode, minority spokesman for the committee.

The licenses could be carrying ID photos soon. "The FAA expects to publish a proposed rule before the end of this year that would require pilots to obtain a certificate that includes a photo," Les Dorr, FAA spokesman, said in an e-mail. He declined to comment on any other requirements for the licenses, or about the deadlines. TSA did not return a call seeking comment.

The Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations, a trade group representing 28,000 professional pilots, issued a statement supporting security upgrades to licenses, including biometrics IDs.

"CAPA's long-standing goal has been to both encourage and facilitate the implementation and standardization of high-level authentication methods to positively verify the identity of all individuals who are authorized flight deck access on both passenger and all-cargo carriers," the group said.

No identification card can be expected to provide 100 percent security, said Richard Bloom, vice president for academics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Prescott, Ariz., campus. Security requirements must be balanced against limited resources, he said.