Potential aviation students in San Mateo County will probably not have to undergo the FBI background checks recently proposed by a county supervisor, but some area flight school heads are still apprehensive about a pending ordinance.
After meeting with local pilots association and flight school officials, Supervisor Mark Church said he was backing off from a more stringent bill he recently proposed. That ordinance would require federal criminal background checks on any potential student at either San Carlos or Half Moon Bay airports. The applicant, which would have shouldered the $74 cost, would not have been able to fly for up to three weeks before their background check cleared.
Pilots balked, claiming that their already shaky business would be ruined by students turning to other counties without such restrictions. As a compromise, Church and county staff agreed to a preliminary decision to verify a student or pilot's identification against databases in a background check run by the local Sheriff's Department. That check is expected to take no more than 72 hours and the county would pay the cost.
However, Alex Abed, President of Bel-Air International flight school, still has some apprehensions.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.