Air Traffic Historical Data

Dear Mr. Bellina,

We will need some additional information in order to process and assign your FOIA request. Please provide a latitude and longitude box and altitude. This information is necessary for our Air Traffic Organization to conduct a proper search for the flight data you are interested in. Once we receive this information, we will begin processing your request.

Thank You
FAA FOIA Office

Dear Mr. Bellina,

Your request has been processed and assigned within the FAA. The attached letter contains contact information for the organization responding to your request should you want to check the status.

Thank You,
FAA FOIA Office

Good Morning Mr. Bellina,

This email is in reference to your FOIA Request #2017-010458. After reviewing your request, I have determined that we cannot provide you with certain information, as some of the information you are requesting isn't maintained by the FAA. For instance, we do not maintain , flight plans, flight logs, "sqawk," and some of the other information you are asking for. We can provide you with the following information only: Aircraft ID, TFMS Flight Index, Unique Flight ID, Date, Departure Airport, Departure Date (UTC), Departure Time (UTC), Arrival Airport, Arrival Date (UTC), Arrival Time (UTC), User Class, Physical Class, and Aircraft Type.

Furthermore, some of the information you are asking for are protected under FOIA exemption 6, which protects information about an individual the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Therefore you will not be given information on an "owners address." Also, any registration numbers for aircraft will be available for you to look up on your own once we provide you with flight information for the coordinates you requested, on the FAA website as it is public information and not subject to FOIA. Therefore we will not be including "owner names, , Aircraft make, model, and manufacturer" as aircraft ownership is public information and can be searched with the aircraft ID. Furthermore, we do not "create" records for requesters as we are not required to do so under FOIA. Therefore, you will need to calculate the speed on your own based on the flight information that will be provided to you once our search is done.

Additionally, you requested that we provide you with military and law enforcement flight data if they are within the coordinates you provided. Please be aware that you providing you with that information would only be possible after we have consulted with those agencies to release that information if anything was found. This is pursuant to DOT regulation 49 CFR, Subpart A - Part 7.28a, which states "if the release of a DOT created record covered by this subpart would be of concern to DOT and one or more other Federal agencies, the determination as to release is made by DOT, but only after consultation with the other concerned agency." Because outside agencies have their own FOIA system and backlog, all FOIAs are placed in a cue and taken in the order in which they are received. This could mean a lengthy wait to get an approval to release records and your FOIA due date will need to be extended to at least October 1, 2018. As we have done with previous requesters, we can provide you with the information that does not require a consultation while you await the consultation of those data that required it. Please note that if there are no aircraft that fall into this category after our search, you will be able to disregard this paragraph.

Thank you,

Tiffany Byrd
FOIA & OIG
System Operations Services, AJR-0
Tiffany.ctr.byrd@faa.gov<mailto:Tiffany.ctr.byrd@faa.gov>
P: 202-267-0531

Good Morning Mr. Bellina,
Please be advised that you will need to respond to the email below in reference to any military or Law enforcement data that may be found before we can conduct our search. I will need a response from you by close of business today.
Thank you,
Tiffany

A copy of documents responsive to the request.

Good Morning Mr. Bellina,
Thank you for getting back to me. I mailed out your data and interim response on October 12th. I'll note in our system that you would like to close your request and will take the data we sent without military information. There were no fees associated with your request, so you don't have to worry about that part. Please note that your request was mailed to the address provided on your request (MuckRock).
Thank you,
Tiffany

Hi Mr. Bellina,

A DVD was mailed to the address that was noted on your request on October 12.

MUCKRock
411A Highland Avenue
DEPT MR 42695
Somerville, MA 02144

You will have to contact them to get the information sent to you directly as you did not provide your physical address on the request letter.
Thank you,
Tiffany

Mr. Bellina the data is what it is, that is how the system provided data and we do not alter the data based on computer errors.
Thank you,
Tiffany

Furthermore, if a file does not contain data, that means the system did not record data for that day. A computer glitch can cause several months of data to go missing. In this case, we have provided you with ALL that we have.
Thank you
Tiffany

There would be no data on a computer glitch Mr. Bellina. My note was an example of if there were. Any glitches are fixed if found. As I said previously, if there is no data for a file, it is likely that there was a problem with the feed and no data was collected. Additionally, the data is exactly what it is. We do not change the data or fill in gaps. You'll need to send this request through the FAA website and not through me, if you choose to proceed. I am however informing you, that while we will conduct a search, you will likely receive a no records response if nothing is found.

Good Morning Mr. Bellina,
You are asking for line error information, not missing months of data. Line errors occur in systems like this and the data is as it is. Databases are imperfect and they do tend to have glitches that go unnoticed, until someone finally notices them and inserts a fix. TFMS and NOP are no different. I've asked our technician to check on those dates and the errors you've found. Please note thought that their response will likely be no different from mine, except maybe a bit more detailed. Additionally, if you choose to submit a new request for memo's etc., you will be charged for the hours of search and review time, which ranges from $63 to $85 dollars an hour as you are a private citizen and would fall under the All Other or commercial (Global Enterprise Management Group, Inc.). It is estimated that a search that large would range from 3-4 hours of search time and review time would be between 2-4 hours depending on the amount of information found. We estimate a fee of $504 at its highest at $63 an hour or $664 at the $85 range. The range is determined by the grade level of the employee conducting the search and/or review. You can submit a new request on the FAA website. It has to go through the proper channels in order to be assigned a FOIA number. I'll email you later on today to let you know what I've been told about the errors you've noted.
Thank you,
Tiffany