There's a lot about Captain America: Civil War that is still up in the air, but one thing is certain: Bucky is one of many catalysts that will lead to an all out war between Captain America and Iron Man's teams.
Bucky, better known as the Winter Soldier to the world governments, has broken every law imaginable. However, in perfect Marvel fashion, it was against his will and the previously dead, then alive and evil best friend of Cap turns out to truly be good. Of course, most of the world doesn't see it that way, namely because Bucky ran off and hid after nearly killing his best friend. And while Cap's attempts to protect his buddy definitely puts a strain on the Avengers, we know there's more to it than that.
The Avengers themselves are seen less as heroes and more as vigilantes after every crisis they save the planet from. As General Ross has said, "You've operated with unlimited power and no supervision. That's something the world can no longer tolerate."
Okay, that's reasonable. Sure, these guys have saved us, but who's to say they won't break and switch sides? The public has already seen Hawkeye side with Loki, the Hulk rampage through an African city, and Cap helping a known terrorist. With that kind of power and the familiarity with no supervision, how can anyone say that's not possible?
Which explains where the start of Civil War comes in. The government, urged by the public most likely, will want to put regulations on the Superheroes. And, again, very reasonable, but there is a line that must be drawn here. And as we can see, that line gets crossed in Cap's eyes and thus begins the Civil War pitting Iron Man against Cap.
But let's backtrack a little here. Iron Man has always seemed to clash with our government. When first Tony revealed that he was Iron Man, he was requested to be brought to court to address what is to be done with the Iron Man suits. That didn't go over too well. In Avengers, when the nuke is heading for New York City, Tony goes out of his way to disregard what the government is telling him and redirect the Nuke into the wormhole. And while we all loved that because he saved the world, he still disregarded what he was told.
But more than that, Tony has consistently disregarded one simple rule that shouldn't be that hard to follow. Well, in actuality, it's a set of rules, but they all have to do with one thing.
Iron Man can fly.
What does that mean exactly? Simple. Everything he does in that suit has to follow the same rules that a small little Cessna 172 has to follow as well as the same rules that a Boeing 747 has to follow. The Federal Aviation Regulations/Aeronautical Information Manual or FAR-AIM.
How did I come to this conclusion? Simple. According the FAR-AIM, the Iron Man suits (War Machine included) are considered aircrafts.
Aircraft means a device that is used or intended to be used for flight in the air.
The term aircraft refers to hot air balloons, glider planes, helicopters, remote control helicopters, drones, airbuses, skyhawks, paper airplanes, Iron Man's suits, and many more.
So what regs (regulations or part of the FAR part in FAR-AIM) has Iron Man and company violated? Let's take a look:
For starters, everything I list below applies to Iron Man within the U.S. When he goes to Wakanda, Sokovia, and other countries, these rules don't apply. Well they might. I'm not entirely certain on that one because I don't get a chance to look at the regs for other countries. But you get the point. They have to follow these rules.
That looks like a lot of legal jargon, so let me simplify it for you. In general airspaces below 10,000 feet, the speed limit is 250 knots or 288 mph. When you fly near Class B airspace (near big airports like Los Angeles International, Chicago-O'Hare International, and New York-JFK International) the speed limit drops to 200 knots or (230 mph).
Almost all of Iron Man's suits can break the sound barrier. The speed of sound is 340.29 m/s. That's 761.21 mph, well beyond the speed limit. But like I said, these suits break the sound barrier meaning they go faster than the speed of sound. That's pretty damn fast.
I mentioned the Class B airspace before. So what happens if Iron Man were to enter that airspace? Well for one, he can't. He doesn't have a private pilot's license which is required to enter the airspace. He's also require to have a two-way radio capable of talking with a control tower at the airport (which he probably does because he's Tony Stark). But he needs a device that tells the controlling agency his altitude. And while Tony might have something that tells him his own altitude, I doubt he cared enough to tell the controlling agency.
But let's say he has all this stuff. That he's good to go into the airspace. First he needs clearance from the controlling agency to enter the airspace. To get clearance, he'd have to talk directly to the controlling agency. Which he probably wouldn't do (because he's Tony Stark).
Those are only just a few of the rules that Iron Man disregards completely. And Tony isn't alone here. Other heroes who break these rules every time they start up their engines include War Machine, Falcon, the Atom, the X-Men, Batman, Wonder Woman, Arch Angel (because those wings were made for Warren, not his original wings), Rescue, the Silver Surfer, and Green Lantern.
These regs are put in place to help other pilots. The FAA doesn't want people with minimum licenses interfering with important flight patterns. They don't want student pilots who just got their certificates or who are on a solo flight entering into congested airspace and disrupting an airport possibly delaying flights all over the world. Conversely, they don't want to offput those student pilots by having fighter jets (or Iron Men) flying through their practice areas breaking the sound barrier as they're attempting to learn how to recover from a stall.
Of course, the FAA probably made adjustments to the FAR-AIM in the Marvel and DC Universes when these heroes came onto the scene not to make it easier on them, but to help the pilots who have to deal with these careless heroes. Even still, the heroes themselves probably disregard a lot of the regs placed on them to make flight safer for civilians and airlines.
While Iron Man gets away with constantly putting these civilians in danger every time he goes from point A to point B (ignoring every time he goes into battle), Bucky is getting persecuted for something he didn't even know he was doing. I don't think that's very fair. Do you?
Should Iron Man answer for his FAR-AIM violations?
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Sources: FAR-AIM (text and web) and Quora.com.