U.S. flight schools, banned from training foreign applicants for nearly 16 months for lack of proper background checks, will be cleared to resume the training under a rule the Justice Department published yesterday.

In the Aviation and Transportation Security Act passed in November 2001, Congress required that foreign students undergo up to a 45-day background check before training to pilot aircraft weighing 12,500 pounds or more. Acknowledging that such a delay could hamper recurrent training, DOJ last winter provided "advance consent" -- and later expedited clearance procedures -- for pilots with a type rating. DOJ, however, refused to clear pilots seeking their first type rating, saying it needed time to establish the background check procedures.

This refusal led to a de facto ban on certain training, costing U.S. flight schools millions of dollars in revenues and hobbling airlines that had hired new pilots with plans to train them. One major flight school attributed $20 million in losses to the delay in procedures.

DOJ's rule came one week after Senate aviation subcommittee Chairman Trent Lott (R-Miss.) agreed to look into DOJ's inaction. General Aviation Manufacturers Association President Ed Bolen had appealed for the Senate's help, calling DOJ's delay an "outrage."