Tu

We today decide whether an agency can effect notice of its ruling, so to start the running of time in which to appeal, by certified mail, when it has reason to know certified mail would not reach petitioner, whereas first class mail would. Actually, anyone who had read Jones v. Flowers, — U.S. -, 126 S.Ct. 1708 , 164 L.Ed.2d 415 (2006), could decide this case without more, but because Jones was decided after this case was briefed, a little more detail might help the parties.

The Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) suspended Chin Yi Tu’s (“Tu”) pilot’s license for 120 days allegedly for “buzzing” (flying below proscribed minimum safe altitudes) on two flights over Mount Rushmore National Memorial and Crazy Horse Mountain. In his petition for review, Tu argues the FAA denied him due process by failing to provide him adequate notice of the orders suspending his pilot’s license, thereby denying him the opportunity timely to appeal the FAA’s determination to the National Transportation Safety Board (“NTSB”).

We have jurisdiction under 49 U.S.C. § 1153 (a), and we grant the petition. We hold the FAA denied Tu due process when it failed to provide Tu with notice reasonably…