49 U.S.C. § 40125 — Qualifications for public aircraft status

(a) Definitions. This section defines four terms. (1) "Commercial purposes" means moving people or property for pay. It does not include the armed forces operating a plane for reimbursement, if a federal law, rule, or order required that reimbursement as of November 1, 1999. It also does not include one government operating a plane for another government under a cost-sharing deal, if the government being helped tells the FAA Administrator the flight is needed to respond to a serious, immediate threat to life or property (including natural resources), and no private company can reasonably handle the threat. (2) "Governmental function" means an activity a government carries out, like national defense, intelligence work, firefighting, search and rescue, law enforcement (including moving prisoners, detainees, and people in the country illegally), aeronautics research, managing biological or geological resources (including collecting data on aviation systems being tested at a test range), inspecting infrastructure, or any other activity the Administrator decides is inherently governmental. (3) A "qualified non-crewmember" is a person on board a plane, other than a crew member, if the plane is (A) run by the armed forces or a U.S. intelligence agency, or (B) the person's presence is needed for, or tied to, a governmental function. (4) "Armed forces" has the same meaning as in section 101 of title 10. (b) Aircraft Owned by Governments. Some government-owned aircraft (types A, B, C, D, or F under section 40102(a)(41)) do not count as "public aircraft" if the aircraft is used for commercial purposes or carries someone who is not a crew member or qualified non-crewmember. (c) Aircraft Owned or Operated by the Armed Forces. (1) An armed-forces aircraft (type E under section 40102(a)(41)) counts as a public aircraft if: (A) it is operated under title 10; (B) it performs a governmental function under title 14, 31, 32, or 50 and is not used for commercial purposes; or (C) it is chartered to provide transport or other commercial air service to the armed forces, and the Secretary of Defense (or the Secretary overseeing the Coast Guard) says the flight is needed in the national interest. (2) Limitation. If the aircraft is owned or run by a State's, D.C.'s, or a territory's National Guard, it only counts as public if the Department of Defense directly controls it. (d) Search and Rescue Purposes. An aircraft (type D under section 40102(a)(41)) that is not leased exclusively for at least 90 straight days by a state, D.C., a territory, or one of their local governments still counts as a public aircraft if the Administrator finds all of these: (1) there are extraordinary circumstances; (2) the plane will be used for search and rescue; (3) a community would not otherwise have search and rescue services; and (4) the government shows that granting this waiver is needed to avoid an unfair economic burden on it.