STRAIGHTEN UP AND FLY RIGHT – AT 8:34 A.M. ET:  More reassuring reports from your federal government, from Fox News:

The Federal Aviation Administration is missing key information on who owns one-third of the 357,000 private and commercial aircraft in the U.S. — a gap the agency fears could be exploited by terrorists and drug traffickers.

The records are in such disarray that the FAA says it is worried that criminals could buy planes without the government's knowledge, or use the registration numbers of other aircraft to evade new computer systems designed to track suspicious flights. It has ordered all aircraft owners to re-register their planes in an effort to clean up its files.

About 119,000 of the aircraft on the U.S. registry have "questionable registration" because of missing forms, invalid addresses, unreported sales or other paperwork problems, according to the FAA. In many cases, the FAA cannot say who owns a plane or even whether it is still flying or has been junked.

Already there have been cases of drug traffickers using phony U.S. registration numbers, as well as instances of mistaken identity in which police raided the wrong plane because of faulty record-keeping.

COMMENT:  President Kennedy once called the State Department "a bowl of jelly."  The FAA is a bowl of mush.  The agency has a legendarily poor reputation, especially for installing and using new technology.  This new report will not fill us with confidence.  The skies may be friendly, but they're not as safe as they can be with the FAA in charge of aircraft record keeping.

And what will be done about it?  Very little, over a long period of time.

December 10, 2010