On July 6, according to the Wall Street Journal,Despite objections from federal aviation safety regulators, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman flew a vintage fighter jet for the Fourth of July Independence Day flight show in Washington, D.C..
Isaacman
A representative for Isaacman filed an application with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) late last month to allow four jets built in the 1970s to fly over the National Mall in celebration of America's 250th anniversary.
The FAA on June 30 denied Isaacman's request to allow NASA and Air Force pilots to fly Northrop F-5 Tiger II jets, according to documents posted online. The FAA considers these aircraft to be "extremely high risk" and pose a potential hazard to people and property on the ground.
The FAA's decision was signed by Hugh Thomas, the agency's top official in charge of the flight standards division. The six-page document discusses issues such as the F-5's flight control system, the possible consequences of a pilot ejecting and previous crash records.
F-5 fighter jets performed last Saturday
Isaacman said in an interview that the flight demonstration can be carried out completely safely, noting that there are still a large number of F-5 "Tiger II" jets in service around the world, and their models have been used for decades.
Isaacman is an experienced pilot who has flown military aircraft for many years. He believes that the outside world has misunderstandings about the FAA's role in events such as the "250th Anniversary Celebration of the Founding of the United States" and in F-5 supervision.
He said that although NASA officials had applied for an exemption from the FAA, he believed that the use of F-5 fighter jets for flyover performances was subject to different rules than civil aviation regulations. Such rules exclude government aircraft from FAA jurisdiction.
Isaacman said he had previously placed the planes under NASA control, although ownership of the planes had not been officially transferred. Isaacman once flew NASA employees on his jets to reward their excellence.
"This should never have been considered a civilian mission from the beginning," he told the Wall Street Journal.
Isaacman's jet kicked off Saturday's hours-long aerial display, which also included flyovers by a variety of U.S. military fighter jets, bombers and transport aircraft. He said FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford texted him before the flight wishing him well.
An FAA spokesman said Bedford was unavailable for an interview Sunday. An agency spokesman said the FAA conducts standard safety reviews of "privately owned experimental aircraft" before they are returned to government ownership.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who oversees the FAA, supported the agency's safety decisions and did not intervene, according to people familiar with the matter. The U.S. Department of Transportation declined to comment.