The US Government shut-down, which became effective on Tuesday 1st October is affecting practically all departments and about 800,000 federal workers have been laid off temporarily without pay.

From a helicopter industry point of view, we have seen that Sikorsky will put 2,000 employees on leave if the shut-down continues on Monday 7th. The FAA registration office is also closed, which means registrations are not being issued or cancelled, and changes of ownership are not being processed. This has a knock-on effect in blocking export and import of aircraft, and Special Flight Authorizations (ferry permits) are not being issued either.

Over in the Airworthiness part of the FAA, full Airworthiness Directives are still being issued, but anything of a lower level of importance are in a holding pattern.

US accident data, normally issued daily by the FAA, has not been issued since Monday 30th September.

William P Johnson – HeliHub.com Washington Correspondent