Former FAA aviation safety inspector sentenced for bribery, falsifying airman certificate

Michael Puehler, a former FAA aviation safety inspector, was sentenced to 36 months of supervised release and a $200 special assessment after being found guilty of falsifying certification records in exchange for payment. He was sentenced on June 29 after pleading guilty on Feb. 2 for an investigation into illegal actions that took place on or about Sept. 20, 2018, but upon pleading guilty he revealed the crimes went back farther than originally believed.

Puehler was accused of falsifying an airman certificate and rating application for a flight instructor in exchange for payment, knowing the instructor did not complete the renewal requirements. On Sept. 21, 2022 a U.S. Attorney for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio filed an information charging Puehler with the falsification of records and receiving an illegal gratuity by a public official. He pleaded guilty on Feb. 2, 2023 to falsifying records and receiving illegal gratuity by a public official, beginning in at least October 2014 and continuing through at least April 2019.

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He had impeded and influenced the department’s ability to properly assess the individuals seeking renewal and reinstatement of their pilot certifications. In a specific instance in September 2018, Puehler knowingly falsified an airman certificate and rating application for a flight instructor in exchange for payment when the instructor in question did not complete the renewal requirements. The discovery of the illegal certification and bribery led to the FAA posting a notice for individuals examined by Puehler, issued on July 15, 2020 proposing reexamination.

The notice proposed the reexamination of individuals tested by Puehler to ensure each meets the standards of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The admission of illegal activities from 2014-2019 put the qualifications and certifications of all of the individuals he examined into question. The FAA stated that the competency of airmen examined by Puehler between October 2008 and December 2019 was in doubt. In 11 years of testing, hundreds of pilots’ certification was in question.

The proposed notice requested that all airmen Puehler had tested in the last decade be reexamined to ensure competency. There were a few exceptions, like for pilots that had a checkride with Puehler and then were tested by another Designated Pilot Examiner or FAA inspector for a higher-level U.S. certificate or rating In the same category of class. The reexamination process stood to evaluate 11 years and numerous pilots. Notice 8900.555 was canceled one year later on July 15, 2021. A second notice, 8900.599 was issued on Sept. 27, 2021 and canceled on Sept. 27, 2022, and the reexamination process was still not completed.

According to the AOPA, the FAA has the authority to request reexamination when the request is reasonable. Previous requests have been upheld even when there was not sufficient evidence for retesting. According to the NTSB Order in Administrator v. Santos and Rodriguez, “reexamination requests made in this context must be sustained if the evidence creates even a reasonable doubt as to whether the respondents were tested properly.”

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Despite the cancelation of the two proposed notices, mass reexaminations are well within the FAA’s authority and while tedious, can help to prevent an unqualified pilot from flying. This is also not the first instance of bribery and fraud within the FAA. On Dec. 5, 2019 former FAA Safety Inspector Manuel R. Fernandez was sentenced to over six years in prison after being convicted of 21 criminal counts related to a bribery and fraud scheme. Fernandez had been providing a company he was working for with improperly obtained aviation repair manuals produced by Honeywell and Delta to save the company from paying money for the information, in exchange for cash, goods and even a cruise.

The FAA is held to the highest standard in aviation, leading many to believe and expect safe and proper examinations and stringent rule-following from members of the agency. Corruption can work its way into even the golden standard of aviation. Now, Puehler has been sentenced for his crimes and faces his sentence. Many pilots will know that the hard work and dedication that it takes to achieve certification cannot be cheated. The ability and allowance to fly is a cultivation of hundreds of hours of studying and flying and the sky will be a lot safer with properly certified pilots flying.