LOS ANGELES - The U.S Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposes a $624,000 civil penalty against Steele Aviation of Beverly Hills, Calif., for allegedly conducting illegal passenger-carrying flights.
This is the second civil penalty the FAA has proposed against Steele during the past year for allegedly conducting unauthorized operations.
In the latest case, the FAA alleges that between October 2016 and February 2018, Steele conducted 16 for-hire flights when the company did not have the air carrier certificate required for these operations. The flights involved transporting the same paying passenger between various points in Southern, Central and Northern California, and to Seattle, on a Cessna Citation CE-551 jet and a Hawker HS-125-800 jet.
The FAA alleges the operations were careless and reckless so as to endanger lives or property.
Two of the flights occurred after the FAA proposed the earlier civil penalty against Steele. In that case, the FAA alleged Steele operated a Gulfstream IV and a British Aerospace 125 on at least 78 for-hire passenger-carrying flights between Sept. 17, 2015 and June 13, 2016 when neither aircraft was listed on an air carrier certificate. The FAA further alleged the pilots who conducted the majority of these flights did not meet applicable training requirements for that type of operation.
Steele has 30 days after receiving the FAA’s latest enforcement letter to respond to the Agency.
Source: Federal Aviation Administration
