Trump's FAA pick has claimed ‘commercial' pilot license he doesn't have

Politico

12 hours ago

President Donald Trump's nominee to head the Federal Aviation Administration long described himself in his official biography as being certified to fly aircraft commercially — but records examined by POLITICO show that he does not hold any commercial license.
Bryan Bedford's biography at Republic Airways, the regional airline where he has been CEO since 1999, said until Thursday that he 'holds commercial, multi-engine and instrument ratings.' (By Friday, after POLITICO's inquiries, the word 'commercial' had been removed.) The FAA registry that houses data on pilot's licenses does not list any such commercial credentials for Bedford.
Similar language asserting commercial credentials for Bedford appeared in his Republic bio since at least 2010, according to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
Bedford is a licensed private pilot, the FAA records show, and has attained additional credentials allowing him to fly in a variety of specialized circumstances, including operating multi-engine planes and piloting at night or in bad weather. He has passed 'written and oral exams' for becoming a commercial airline pilot, the Transportation Department said in a statement, adding that Bedford had not 'personally nor publicly claimed to be a commercial airline pilot.'
Questions about Bedford's credentials do not appear to threaten his prospects for heading the FAA, an agency trying to recover from years of high-level leadership shake-ups, failures of key aviation technology, a spate of near-misses in the skies and January's 67-fatality crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Bedford didn't respond to multiple attempts by POLITICO to request comment, nor did Republic. The White House referred questions to DOT.
DOT defended Bedford, who would be the latest in a string of licensed pilots confirmed to lead the aviation agency. The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on his nomination earlier this week.
'Bryan never misrepresented his credential; it was an administrative error that was immediately corrected,' DOT said in a statement. The agency did not respond to questions about what the 'error' was or how it had been fixed.
The aviation news publication The Air Current previously reported in April about questions regarding Bedford's pilot credentials.
The FAA issues various forms of commercial pilot ratings, including a 'commercial privileges' certificate that allows pilots to fly people or goods for hire, such as on cargo planes, small propeller aircraft or charter flights. Working as an airline pilot requires someone to hold a more rigorous commercial rating designating them as an 'air transport pilot,' which requires extensive flight hours, among other things.
Darren Pleasance, president and CEO of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, a trade group for private airplane owners, said earning any pilot's license — including for commercial planes — requires written and oral exams and also a 'check ride' conducted by a licensed FAA examiner, who evaluates a person's skill at actually flying a plane.
Pleasance, who holds an 'air transport pilot' license and is a certificated flight instructor, said a pilot working toward their commercial privileges would additionally have to pass a more comprehensive flight test that includes successfully performing complicated maneuvers in midair and during landing or take-off.
'You cannot get a commercial rating without having gone through and taken those tests,' Pleasance said after being asked to comment on the pilot licensing process and testing criteria. He was not addressing any specific questions regarding Bedford's credentials.
Another aviation expert familiar with the licensing process, granted anonymity to speak candidly about a sensitive topic, said that 'if you haven't successfully gone through all of that, no one should claim to have a certain rating — because they don't have it.'
'It's like saying you are a medical doctor but you haven't finished medical school,' said the expert.
After viewing Bedford's publicly accessible licensure record, the person confirmed that it does not contain any commercial certifications. It lists Bedford as being licensed to fly single and multi-engine planes as well as having earned his 'instrument rating,' which means he can fly at night or in bad weather.
In a statement, DOT said that Bedford has never claimed to be a 'commercial airline pilot,' and added that he had passed 'written and oral exams' needed to be licensed to fly commercially.
DOT didn't address whether Bedford had completed a 'check ride' with an experienced pilot, which is necessary for a commercial certificate.
Besides the wording on his company's website, Bedford also gave a speech in 2019 at Liberty University where another speaker introduced him as holding 'commercial, multi-engine and instrument pilot ratings.'
During a question-and-answer portion of his appearance, Bedford said he had decided to pursue pilot training after going through an intense period of union negotiations, where labor insisted that he didn't understand what it meant to be an airline pilot.
'When I was in Minnesota between like, 1994, 1997, I went through private, instrument, multi-engine, commercial, and by the time we got to our next labor negotiation three years later, I had all my ratings, and l'd actually been flying some of our turbine airplanes around,' Bedford said.
At Bedford's confirmation hearing Wednesday, Republican senators repeatedly praised his fitness for the FAA job — including Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, who called him 'exactly the type of innovative leader' the agency needs. Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz of Texas added that 'as a pilot, Mr. Bedford understands how important it is for pilots to go through rigorous training.'
Democrats at the hearing pressed Bedford on other issues related to public safety, including whether he would scale back the FAA's requirement that people seeking to become airline pilots log at least 1,500 of flight time — a rule that Republic requested an exemption from in 2022. None of them brought up his pilot's credentials.
'I am less worried about that than I am more worried about the fact that in his previous role at Republic Air[ways], he pushed very hard to degrade the 1,500 hour rule,' Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the Commerce Committee's top Democrat, said when asked about the credentials issue during a call with reporters Tuesday.
The assertion that Bedford holds a commercial rating appears to have been scrubbed from two sections of Republic's website at different times within the past seven months.
According to a screen grab from the 'Executive Leadership' section of the airline's website from December 1, 2024, accessed via the Wayback Machine, Bedford's biography said at the time that he 'holds commercial, multi-engine and instrument pilot ratings.' By March 18, according to the Wayback Machine, the word 'commercial' had been removed from that sentence. One day before that, Trump announced Bedford as his pick on social media.
However, the claim that Bedford holds a 'commercial' rating still appeared as of Thursday on the Republic website's 'Board of Directors' page. By Friday the reference had been scrubbed.
As of Friday, similar language also remained in a biography section for Bedford at the Regional Airlines Association trade group website.
When asked about possible questions on Bedford's biography after Wednesday's hearing, Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) told a reporter he'd 'heard about that' and that his team 'did flag that.'
'We are doing just sort of an extensive look, not just at his policies, but just sort of his background as well,' he said.
'So I haven't made a determination yet but it is something that' he is examining, Kim said.
— Chris Marquette and Sam Ogozalek contributed to this report.