Customs Violations Effecting CASS Requirements

Airline Pilot Questions & Answers
1

I appreciate the time all you mentors take to contribute to this website. I’ve learned a lot. Thank you for the wealth of information you share!

I’m currently working as a CFII and building time. About 7 months ago as a brand new commercial pilot and CFI, I took a flight up to Canada in one of our school’s planes with a couple other people, one of whom I had been giving a flight review to. He used to fly his own aircraft up there back in the day, so I left the customs part up to him. I learned a huge lesson that as PIC I am solely responsible for all aspects of the flight. …Turns out he filed the wrong date for our return into the US and I subsequently got slapped with a few customs violations including “failure to obtain permission to land” among others.

I never ended up getting fined but I’m nervous that I won’t be able to pass the background check to get my CASS privileges. Wondering if any of you are familiar with this sort of thing or could point me in the right direction on how to find out how it effects my future.

2

Monica,

The best advice I can give you is to contact the recruiting departments of a few regional airlines and ask them how it will affect your chances of getting hired. My suspicion is that you will be okay, but I would check.

I would worry about simply getting hired, CASS is a whole different thing altogether.

Chris

3

Monica,

As Chris said CASS really is a different animal. CASS simply verifies that you are a current and active cockpit approved employee of a CASS participating airline. If you have a customs violation (not saying that you do) that would be an issue clearing customs or immigration while entering a particular country but again have no effect on CASS status. I know a few pilots with DUIs who can’t enter Canada BUT are in CASS and JumpSeat with no problem.

Adam