Originally Posted by
mike1974
I'm sorry, this entire registration is an exercise in futility. It is mind numbing to believe that the FAA actually believes this will do anything to solve the perceived problem or keep the NAS safe. I would bet money that my 7 year old could understand why this registration solves nothing. How grown, educated men and woman of the FAA cannot understand such a simple concept is insane!! Heres your sign!!
Registration is a necessary administrative requirement that then can serve as a basis for additional action. Just like laws on obstruction of justice. In and of themselves, they do nothing to prevent crime. What they do however is provide a basis for starting action when a law is broken. It works like this: If the Feds suspect something, they will notify an individual, organization, company, etc. that they are the subject of an investigation and direct them to preserve all documents, communications, emails, etc. From that moment forward, if someone destroys something, it's a slam dunk felony charge. You want to see it in action, remember the BP engineer that destroyed text messages on his phone? Yep. Obstruction of justice.
So, now fast forward to someone who does something with a MR that results in something serious to an aircraft. If they're fortunate enough to find the operator, and they're getting smarter and smarter about how to do that, if they find he's not registered - guess what? Slam dunk holding charge. Now they can start negotiating for a plea bargin, perhaps use it to find others who might have known about the dangerous operation, etc.
If the registration requirement wasn't there, it all gets much more difficult.