The big business jet, which Maduro reportedly used as his version of “Air Force One,” was flown by American officials from the Dominican Republic to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

“This morning, the Justice Department seized an aircraft we allege was illegally purchased for $13 million through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States for use by Nicolás Maduro and his cronies,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a DOJ news release on Monday. 

DOJ said the plane was bought from an unnamed South Florida company. It is registered as T7-ESPRT, which is under the registry of the tiny landlocked country of San Marino, which is an independent state surrounded entirely by Italy in the northeastern area of the country. Registration data was not available from the San Marino authority. 

San Marino allows anyone from a “non-blacklisted country” to register an aircraft as long as they have a resident agent in the tiny country.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

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In a statement sent to FLYING, the FAA explained, “The new rule applies to new registrations and extends the duration of current certificates. It covers all traditional aircraft and larger drones.”

According to the draft of the final rule, owners will be required to confirm their aircraft registration information and renew their certificates every seven years, unless an event or circumstances require a new registration be issued before that time. In that scenario, for example, if the FAA determines the aircraft registration is inaccurate, the owner may be required to submit a new application for registration.

In addition, the direct final rule removed the requirement that the FAA issue a letter extending temporary authorization if a registration has not been issued or denied within 90 days of the application.

How We Got Here

In 2010, the FAA instigated the mandate requiring aircraft owners to re-register their aircraft every three years and to keep the registrations up to date. Prior to this, the registration period was indefinite and some aircraft owners let the registrations expire.

Since 2010, aircraft owners have been required to submit the application for re-registration five months in advance. But in some cases, even five months was not enough lead time because of a backlog at the FAA, forcing aircraft owners to obtain a letter of extension so that they could still fly their aircraft.

In 2018 and as part of the FAA Reauthorization Act, Congress directed the agency to extend the three-year aircraft registration to seven for noncommercial general aviation aircraft. However, the FAA felt this distinction was impractical and opted to extend the registration duration for all aircraft to seven years.

The rule applies to all existing registrations, which means a registration issued in 2021 is extended until 2028.

Traditionally, changes in regulations require a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) and publication in the Federal Register, followed by a comment period of 30 days. In this case, however, the agency opted for a direct final rule, but will still accept comments for 30 days. The rule will take effect 60 days after publication.

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The BCAA said that international sanctions imposed on Russia have effectively made it difficult for the agency to oversee Russian-operated aircraft on its registry safely. 

“For any aircraft airborne at 23:59 UTC on March 12, 2022, the provisional suspension is effective immediately upon landing,” BCAA said on its website, in a move to slow Russian airlines from doing business by keeping the aircraft grounded until they can be listed elsewhere.

Bermuda No Longer a Safe Haven

Airlines initially registered their fleet in Bermuda because of its status as a tax haven and for ease of doing business. A Bernews report said that as much as 740 aircraft of nearly 900 aircraft on the registry belonged to Russian operators. 

However, because of Bermuda’s status as a British overseas territory, it must comply with the sanctions the U.K. imposed on Russia. In fact, on its website, the Bermudian government said its sanctions “are essentially the same as those in the U.K.”

During a parliamentary session in early March, Bermudian government officials Liz Roberts and Elizabeth Truss called for the government to suspend its support of Russian-operated aircraft.

Putin Tries to Nationalize Stranded Aircraft

Valery Kudinov, the head of the Aircraft Airworthiness Department at the Federal Air Transport Agency, told the Tass news outlet that since the end of February, more than 180 aircraft have been added to the Russian state registry, which only stood at 70 aircraft before then. 

Then Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin passed a law to legalize that questionable move. According to Reuters, Putin signed the law Monday morning to allow regional and national airlines that leased aircraft from foreign companies to now list on Russia’s registery and “to ensure the uninterrupted functioning of activities in the field of civil aviation.”

Along with airline lessors canceling their leases, this would effectively nationalize the stranded fleet and make it difficult for lessors to regain their equipment, especially before the March 28 deadline.

This creates another conundrum because the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) mandates that “an aircraft cannot be validly registered in more than one state,” and since there was no legal transfer of ownership from the lessors who outfitted Russian airlines’ fleets, these airplanes will be operating illegally in Russia.

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