Your business aviation hot takes, served fresh.

June 3rd, 2026 | Season 3 Episode 22 Companion

Good morning and welcome back to the VIP Seat. This week we brought in a special guest, Joe LoRusso, Director of Aviation at Ramos Law, to break down the wave of lawsuits following the December Biffle crash. From there we cover Flight Options winning a $39 million tax reversal, a new GAO report on the hurdles facing electric aircraft, fresh charter broker M&A, and a possible government jet sale. Sit back, buckle up, and let's take off.

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The Scoop: Nicole Biffle, the ex-wife of late NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and the administrator of their daughter's estate, filed a wrongful death complaint in Iredell County Superior Court on May 13, according to WCNC Charlotte. The suit stems from the December 18, 2025 crash near Statesville Regional Airport that killed all seven people on board, including 14-year-old Emma Elizabeth Biffle. The complaint names the estate of pilot Dennis Dutton, GB Aviation Leasing LLC, and the estate of Gregory Jack Biffle as defendants, and it alleges negligence and gross negligence along with violations of multiple Federal Aviation Regulations. WCNC reports it seeks damages for wrongful death, pain and suffering, and loss of companionship, and that the filing follows separate wrongful death lawsuits already pending against the Biffle estate. None of the allegations have been proven in court, and as of the reporting the defendants had not yet responded.

Our Take: On the show we sat down with Joe LoRusso, Director of Aviation at Ramos Law, who handles crash litigation for a living. He told us this pattern of overlapping suits is exactly what he would expect to see this early. Naming the LLC is largely procedural because it holds the aircraft, and he explained that the structure only provides real protection when it is run like an actual business with its own records and, ideally, its own coverage. Park an airplane in a shell entity and assume you are protected, he cautioned, and a plaintiff can set the entity aside and pursue the owner individually.

Joe also walked us through why these filings come so fast. It locks in evidence-preservation duties, it unlocks subpoena power, and the eventual NTSB report cannot be entered as evidence in court and often lands after the statute of limitations has run. On the numbers flying around, he framed the smaller compensatory figure as a jurisdictional threshold and the larger demands as settlement signaling. This is the case for professional management and adequate insurance. We talked about how much of general aviation is underinsured relative to the real exposure, and situations like this are where that gap shows. If you fly privately, the structure around the airplane matters as much as the airplane itself.

Read More: WCNC Charlotte

(Kenn Ricci, probably ^ ^ ^)

The Scoop: The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a lower court verdict that would have left Flight Options, LLC liable for roughly $39 million tied to the Federal Excise Tax. The 7.5% FET applies to air transportation, and the IRS had argued Flight Options failed to collect it on monthly management fees paid by fractional owners between 2009 and 2012, an amount the outlet reports at about $24 million before penalties. The appeals court held that the tax applies only to usage charges for specific flights, not to fixed fees covering overhead and management. Flight Options is part of Directional Aviation, the group behind Flexjet. This is the company's second courtroom win this year, following a January settlement with Honeywell reported at more than $1 billion.

Our Take: We could not help but note the win streak. Lately it feels like Kenn Ricci and the Directional camp keep landing on the right side of the scoreboard, from the Honeywell settlement to this tax reversal. At the heart of the case, a management fee is not tied to any specific flight, so taxing it like a flight segment never quite fit. The fixed fee simply gives a member the option to fly later. But we wonder… why the dispute covered only 2009 through 2012, which likely traces back to a 2012 change in the applicable tax law.

For operators and managers who have been collecting FET on fixed management fees, this is worth a conversation with your own aviation tax counsel. We are not tax advisors, but a reversal at the circuit level is the kind of clear-skies ruling the fractional world has been waiting on for a long time.

Read More: Private Jet Card Comparisons

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The Scoop: A new Government Accountability Office report details a series of hurdles still facing electric aircraft, including limited airport infrastructure, uncertainty over future airport revenue, and manufacturer concerns about FAA staffing and certification. As of December 2025, 47 U.S. airports had identified electric aircraft charging stations on their layout plans, and 43 of those were classified as nonhub or smaller facilities. The report says one airport estimated the electrification portion of a planned vertiport alone in the $2 million range. It also notes airports are weighing how a shift away from fuel sales could affect revenue, and that electric propulsion remains a small slice of the FAA's workload, with 23 of 16,788 certification projects since 2018 involving electric propulsion.

Our Take: Regular readers know our refrain on eVTOLs: we will believe it when we see it, and this report did not move us off that. The bottleneck we believe is power. Airports running on decades-old electrical service are being asked to deliver something closer to megawatt-scale capacity, and many of them cannot comfortably do that today. Layer on the competition for electricity from data centers and AI, and the renewable promise starts to look more complicated.

The airspace framework, the charging buildout, and hangars for some of the most delicate aircraft ever designed are all still works in progress. There are headwinds ahead here, and they are measured in years, not quarters. We would love to be proven wrong, but for now this one stays on the watch list.

Read More: AVweb

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The Scoop: Charter broker V2 Jets has acquired fellow charter broker Corporate Aviation, according to Private Jet Card Comparisons. Corporate Aviation was founded in 2020 and operated out of Bedford, Massachusetts and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and seven employees will transition to V2 Jets. V2 Jets, founded in 2015, had around 45 employees before the deal and launched its first fixed-rate jet card program last year. Co-founder Steven Rosenzweig said the move expands the company's advisory bench, and co-founder Guy Endzweig framed it as deepening long-built client relationships at greater scale. Deal terms were not disclosed.

Our Take: Cue the M&A gong. This one is a talent-and-relationships acquisition, with seven advisors and their books of business folding into a larger advisory shop. Nobody is paying a ten-times EBITDA multiple for a charter brokerage, and that the value here is the relationships, which are notoriously hard to underwrite. These deals are creative by nature and that consolidation is generally healthy for a fragmented brokerage market.

It is always good to have liquidity in the market, and tuck-ins like this are how a crowded field slowly sorts itself out. The brokerage space still has a long runway for deals like this one, so do not be surprised to hear the gong again soon.

Read More: Private Jet Card Comparisons

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The Scoop: Under new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, DHS is reportedly weighing the sale of aircraft and detention assets acquired during the prior administration, according to NBC News reporting cited by The Daily Beast. Among the most scrutinized purchases was a customized Boeing 737 MAX 8 that the department had earmarked for deportation flights and Cabinet-level travel. The Daily Beast reports officials are now considering whether the department needs those assets at all. As of the reporting, DHS had not formally announced a sale, and figures around any potential transaction were not confirmed.

Our Take: The large-cabin and ultra-long-range pre-owned market is about as liquid and hot as ever, and well-kept airplanes are moving. If the government bought aircraft and can turn around and sell them into a hot market and actually make money, would that be the most anti-government thing ever? Or, it could just be to free up funds and a quick win by new leadership.

Either way, a strong resale environment gives the seller options, and that is the part worth watching. If these aircraft do hit the market, the real story will be what they fetch.

Read More: The Daily Beast

A Hangar That Belongs on a Design Magazine Cover

This one made us a little jealous. Jessie came across a timber-built, farmhouse-style hangar, finished with the kind of fixtures you would expect in a high-end great room, built to house a Pilatus PC-12. We are big believers that hangars do not have to be utilitarian metal boxes, and Joe pointed out that beautiful wide-open hangars already pull double duty for everything from commercial shoots to wedding venues. If you are going to park a turboprop somewhere, you might as well park it somewhere worth photographing. Wheels down never looked so good.

Mr. Beat Pilot Busted

Uh-oh, it appears one of the pilots that Mr. Beast gave away a private aircraft to got caught up in some shenanigans. Apparently, Jabari Brown was flying a Challenger and unknown to him, he had a ride along… 261 kg of marijuana. Here’s Aaron with the full story.

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Jessie’s Links:
Private Aviation Safety Alliance
FlyVizor
LinkedIn

Preston’s Links:
Prestige Aircraft Finance
Private Jet Insider (Newsletter)
LinkedIn
X (Formerly Known as Twitter)
FastJets

Disclaimer: The VIP Seat Weekly is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Coverage of publicly traded companies reflects the personal opinions of the hosts and does not constitute investment, financial, tax, or legal advice, nor a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. The hosts are not registered investment advisors and may hold positions in companies discussed. All investments carry risk. Readers should conduct their own research and consult a qualified financial professional before making any investment decision.