BARR Agreement Allows Blocking of Tail Numbers to ASDI Providers

A potentially contentious issue of security when some ASDI-for aircraft situational display to industry-providers published flight arrival data on the Internet may have been solved with the recent signing of the block aircraft registration request (BARR) program by all eight current ASDI providers.

The ASDI extends the FAA's ASD program, which was created to track commercial flights, to corporate and other operators who have a need to know the progress of a particular flight. The security questions involved high priority and VIP payloads and industrial espionage issues. A movie star or a high-profile government or industry official, for example, might not want the media to know he is going to a particular city. Or a business may be moving large numbers of people between two points and does not want its competitors to know.

Larry Mosher, president of Plantation, FL-based FlyteComm, said here Sunday that he and others have been concerned about the problem since 1994. They went to NBAA, GAMA, NATA and the other aviation user groups and appealed to FAA for a solution.

Mosher said the agency was concerned about the conflicting issues of security versus freedom of information. But, led by the NBAA, the associations came up with the BARR agreement, which allows operators to block tail numbers for set periods of time.

Originally, only three of the eight ASDI providers signed the BARR, but, apparently concerned the FAA might find a less-appealing solution, all eight have signed as recently as a week ago, Mosher said. The agreement is now in effect.

Mosher said that to get the ASD data, any new ASDI provider will have to sign a memorandum of understanding with the FAA that the provider will inform the agency how he plans to use the data and the provider agrees to sign the BARR.

Under the system, Mosher said, the customer will get a discrete number that will substitute for his tail number. The ASDI provider also will have the number in his database, but it will show up on the screen only as "GA." This way the customer can still track his aircraft but those that do not have a need to know will not know what aircraft it is.

By Jim Street