The U.S. Department of Justice last month indicted five Platinum Jet Management executives and a pilot on 23 criminal counts related to what it says are illegal practices that led to the 2005 Challenger 600 runway overrun and crash at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.

Maintenance technicians are even more susceptible to criminalization following aviation accidents because, as Brian Finnegan points out, “the signoff [for a maintenance assignment] lasts forever, so liability follows the mechanic for years afterward.”

As an integral part of its business and general aviation division reorganization in 2008, General Electric Aviation added a business jet component to its existing customer operations center at its Cincinnati headquarters.