N number question

[Dean]

I am wanting to reserve a N number, but it is still assigned to an aircraft that was destroyed in a fatal crash over 20 years ago. Does the FAA re-assign numbers from destroyed airplanes if they were involved in a crash?

 

[wanttaja]

I am wanting to reserve a N number, but it is still assigned to an aircraft that was destroyed in a fatal crash over 20 years ago. Does the FAA re-assign numbers from destroyed airplanes if they were involved in a crash?

No. The aircraft registration is canceled only when the aircraft owner cancels it. If the airplane was insured, the insurance company usually cancels the registration and thus the number comes up again. Otherwise, it depends on the pilot's estate (whose executor is probably not aviation-savvy, and will probably assume that since the airplane is destroyed, nothing more needs to be done).

However, the FAA is currently trying to come up with ways to weed out the out-of-date registrations. This is the justification for the re-registration fee being bandied about. Some older aircraft are already being struck from the rolls; the FAA registration database includes a listing of de-registered N-Numbers; about 4500 were added to the list during 2007. For example, there were 3,157 Stinsons listed in the January 2005 FAA registration database, but only 2,900 listed two years later.

Ron Wanttaja