TITLE 2

AERONAUTICS

CHAPTER 1. REGULATION OF AERONAUTICS

§1. Definitions

            For the purposes of this Title, the following definitions shall apply:

            (1) "Abandoned aircraft" means any aircraft which has been left on any property for a period of more than ninety days without the consent of the owner or operator of the property.

            (2) "Aeronautics" means any activity that involves, makes possible, or is required for the operation of an aircraft, or that contributes to or is required for the safety of such operation, including the research, development, testing, operations, manufacture, construction, repair, or maintenance of aircraft, airports, landing fields, landing strips, air navigation facilities, or air instruction.

            (3) "Aerospace facility" includes the following:

            (a) An area intended to be used for aerospace flight activities for the transport of goods or persons.

            (b) An area intended to be used for aerospace flight activities.

            (c) An aerospace building or facility located in an area reasonably proximate to a launching or landing area.

            (d) An area reasonably proximate to a launch vehicle or aerospace craft in an area that is intended for use for an aerospace building or facility.

            (e) Any property, including a temporary protection zone, necessary to ensure public safety related to the conduct of aerospace flight activities.

            (4) "Aerospace flight activities" means any act or activity related to the research, development, testing, manufacture, preparation, launch, operation, reentry, descent, landing, or post-landing recovery of a launch vehicle, aerospace craft, payload, or related equipment, including but not limited to fueling, integration, conditioning, transport, and any associated ground support operations, whether conducted on-site or involving overflight.

            (5) "Aerospace flight entity" means any person, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, or other entity that conducts space flight activities and, to the extent required by federal law, holds or operates anywhere under a valid Federal Aviation Administration license, experimental permit, or other authorization for the relevant activities requiring such a license. The term includes any employee, officer, director, agent, contractor, manufacturer, supplier, or vendor of such entity; any owner or lessor of immovable property used for space flight activities; and any political subdivision or public entity with a contractual or operational relationship facilitating such activities.

            (6) "Aerospace flight participant" means an individual carried aboard a craft or vehicle.

            (7) "Aerospace flight participant injury" means an injury sustained by an aerospace flight participant, including bodily injury, emotional distress, death, disability, property damage, or any other loss arising from the individual's participation in aerospace flight activities.

            (8) "Aircraft" means any contrivance or object and its components now known or hereafter invented, used, or designed for navigation of, or flight in, the air, including rockets, spacecraft, launch and reentry vehicles, and any subparts of the launch vehicle specifically designed or adapted for that contrivance or object.

            (9) "Aircraft dealer" means any person engaged in the business of buying, selling, or exchanging aircraft or, for compensation, offering to assist another person with the purchase, sale, or exchange of an aircraft.

            (10) "Air instruction" means the imparting of aeronautical information in any air school, flying club, or by any aviation instructor.

            (11) "Airman" means any person, including the one in command, and any pilot, mechanic or member of the crew, who engages in the navigation of aircraft, any person who performs inspections, overhauls, or repairs aircraft, any individual who serves as an aircraft dispatcher or air traffic control tower operator, and any person who otherwise performs activities relating to the takeoff, launch, reentry, or landing of aircraft.

            (12) "Air navigation" means the operation or navigation of aircraft in the space over the lands and waters of the state of Louisiana.

            (13) "Air navigation facility" means any facility other than facilities owned or operated by the United States, used, or available or designed for use, in aid of air navigation, including any structures, mechanisms, lights, beacons, markers, communicating systems, or other facilities used or useful as an aid, or constituting an advantage or convenience, to the safe taking off, launch, navigation, reentry, and landing of aircraft, or the safe and efficient operation or maintenance of an airport.

            (14) "Air operation area" means certain areas of an airport limited to runways, taxiways, and aprons.

            (15) "Airport" means any area of land or water, except a restricted landing area, or aerospace facility which is designed for the landing, takeoff, launch, and reentry of aircraft, whether or not facilities are provided for the sheltering, servicing, or repairing of aircraft or for receiving or discharging passengers or cargo; all appurtenant areas used or suitable for airport buildings or other aeronautical facilities; all appurtenant rights of way including easements through or other interests in air space over land or water and other protection privileges, the acquisition or control of which is necessary to insure safe approaches to the landing areas and efficient operation; and all areas necessary to ensure the safety of the aeronautical activities conducted therein.

            (16) "Airport hazard" means any structure, object of natural growth, or use of land, which obstructs the air space required for the flight of aircraft in landing, launching, or taking off at any airport or restricted landing area or is otherwise hazardous to such landing, launch, or taking off.

            (17) "Air school" means any person engaged in giving instruction or offering to give instruction in aeronautics either in flying or in ground subjects, or both, for or without hire or reward, and advertising, representing, or holding himself or itself out as giving or offering to give such instruction.

            (18) "Aviation instructor" means any individual engaged in giving instruction, or offering to give instruction, in aeronautics, either in flying or ground subjects, or both, for or without hire or reward, without advertising such occupation, without calling his facilities an "air school" or anything equivalent thereto, or without employing or using other instructors.

            (19) "Civil aircraft" means any aircraft other than a public aircraft.

            (20) "Craft" means any object and its components designed to be launched for operation, and any subcomponents of the launch vehicle specifically designed or adapted for that object.

            (21) "Department" or "Department of Public Works" means the Department of Transportation and Development except where the Department of Public Safety and Corrections is specified.

            (22) "Director" means the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.

            (23) "Fixed-base operator" or "FBO" means an individual or a firm operating at an airport and providing general aircraft or air cargo services including, but not limited to maintenance, storage, repair, and ground and flight instructions.

            (24) "Flying club" means any person, other than an individual, who, neither for profit nor reward, owns, leases, or uses one or more aircraft for the purpose of instruction, pleasure, or both.

            (25) "Launch" means a placement or attempted placement of a launch vehicle or aerospace craft.

            (26) "Launch vehicle" means any vehicle and its stages or components designed to operate in or place aerospace craft.

            (27) "Lighter-than-air aircraft" means an aircraft which can rise and remain suspended by using contained gas with a molecular weight less than the molecular weight of the air displaced by the gas.

            (28) "Person" means any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company, association, joint stock association, or body politic; and includes any trustee, receiver, assignee, or other similar representative thereof.

            (29) "Political subdivision" means any parish, city, town, village, city and parish, public corporation, district, or other political entity of this state.

            (30) "Public aircraft" means any aircraft used exclusively in the service of any government or of any political subdivision thereof, including the government of any state, territory, or possession of the United States, or the District of Columbia, but not including any government-owned aircraft engaged in carrying persons or property for commercial purposes.

            (31) "Restricted landing area" means any area of land, water, or both, which is used or is made available for the landing, launch, and takeoff of aircraft, the use of which shall, except in case of emergency, be only as provided from time to time by the department.

            (32) "Sponsor" means any state agency, city, town, parish, airport authority, or other political subdivision which owns, leases, or controls any airport, landing field, landing strip, seaplane base, helipad, or aid to air navigation.

            (33) "Structure" means any object constructed or installed by man, including but without limitation buildings, towers, smokestacks, and overhead transmission lines.

            (34) "Through-the-fence operation" means the accessing of air operation area airport facilities from off-airport property even when the perimeter fence is imaginary.

            (35) "Tree" means any object of natural growth.

            Amended by Acts 1978, No. 131, §1, eff. June 23, 1978; Acts 1985, No. 889, §1; Acts 1998, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 28, §1, eff. April 24, 1998; Acts 1999, No. 836, §1; Acts 2008, No. 326, §1; Acts 2026, No. 584, §1, eff. June 1, 2026.