Cleared to be Busted

AvWeb ^ | November 17, 2003 | anonymous

[snopercod]

FAA Staff Approve Unauthorized Flights To DC-3...

Managers of two of three Washington-area airports closed to transient traffic since 9/11 say flight service staff and even air traffic controllers continue to steer unauthorized flights in their direction, causing security alerts and landing pilots in hot water. The DC-3 airports -- College Park, Hyde Field and Potomac Airfield-- are within the 15-nm Flight Restriction Zone around Washington and are closed to all aircraft except those based at any of the three and flown by a specially screened pilot. Yet, incredibly, FAA staff continue to approve flight plans to two facilities have even vector unauthorized flights to one of them, according to airport managers. FAA spokesman William Shumann said he'd heard nothing about those types of incidents but will check into it. College Park manager Lee Schiek said he'd love to get a call from Shumann or anyone else at the FAA. "Since 9/11 there have been four recorded instances where a pilot has filed a flight plan and been vectored in (to land at College Park) by ATC," said Schiek. He said that in one case, a pilot checked with a Long Island FSDO before departing and asked directly how to fly into College Park. Schiek said the pilot was told to file an IFR flight plan, which he did. Along the way, the pilot was handled by Washington Center and the Potomac TRACON before touching down. According to Schiek, that pilot has been notified of impending sanctions by the FAA. Schiek said he knows at least one of the other three unauthorized pilots who landed there got a 60-day suspension. "Our federal government has put together a set of dysfunctional operating procedures based upon intellectually dishonest assumptions and delivered with a big degree of institutional arrogance," he said.

...FSS, ATC Both Involved...

At Hyde Field, manager Stan Fetter said no unauthorized flights have actually made it into his airport but it's not for lack of trying. Fetter said he gets at least a dozen calls a week from people asking for information about fuel availability and the like and he has to politely remind them that his facility is off limits to them. "At least one or two a week will say something like, 'Gee, I just got off the phone with flight service, had a 20-minute briefing and filed a flight plan in there, and they didn't say a thing about that,'" Fetter told AVweb. Fetter stressed that it's always the pilot's responsibility to ensure he or she follows the rules, but the FAA also has a role to play in preventing airspace violations. It can't help that charts do not plot the ADIZ because of its "temporary" nature. AVweb is not aware of any date set to add the ADIZ to the charts, nor are we aware of any timeline to remove the "temporary" DC ADIZ. "While it is certainly the pilot's responsibility to get this information, it's a little tough when the people who are in charge leave critical items out, accept flight plans that violate the FRZ, and then ATC sends them merrily on their way even though the required authorizations are not there." Fetter said pilots and aircraft authorized to use the DC-3 are easily recognizable by their unique flight-planning requirements and transponder codes but he said the FAA and TSA simply haven't supplied the manpower and equipment necessary to administer the system effectively. "The FRZ is an administrative nightmare that causes more trouble than it's worth and creates far more problems than it solves," he said. "They created this monster, didn't provide even the minimum resources to implement it, and now they wonder why it doesn't work."

...Confusion Reigns, But There's Hope

At Potomac Airfield, manager David Wartofsky shared with AVweb a security incident that raised an entirely new set of questions. A Connecticut doctor was intercepted in restricted airspace and escorted by a Blackhawk helicopter to Potomac. Once on the ground, it was clear the good doctor was no threat and, as far as the authorities were concerned, he was free to continue his trip. Trouble was, the surgeon wasn't among the DC-3-based group of pilots allowed clearances to fly out of those three airports. Wartofsky came to the rescue by finding a cleared pilot to take the errant pilot out of the sanitized zone. Wartofsky said it's an example of the bizarre circumstances that surface daily but he's also confident things will get better. "Within the FAA and TSA there are more competent people moving into positions [of authority]," he said. As they become established in their jobs, Wartofsky said he has hope that a "rational and user-friendly airspace security paradigm" will evolve. He said the key to that is focusing on people and their motives and developing a system to separate the good guys from the bad guys. "The mission and the methodology are confused," he said. The result has been that existing systems, given new and unfamiliar tasks, are crumbling under the strain. "By overwhelming the system, you undermine it," he said. "It still astonishes me, the confusion out there."

[snopercod]

Could this be what happened last week to the pilot that flew 8 miles from the White House?

[snopercod]

aviation bump

[meenie]

Could it possibly be that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing?

[wita]

...coupled with that well worn statement "it isn't in my job description".

[snopercod]

I think so.

When I was a student pilot, I filed a flight plan for my night cross-country to an airport S. of Phoenix. When I got in the air and went to open the flight plan with FSS, they told me, "That airport is closed at night. Didn't the briefer tell you that?".

I wanted to say, "Do you think I would be flying there in the dark of night if he had?", but I kept it professional and filed for a different airport.

Most of these FAA guys and gals mean well, but they are still bureaucrats and are protected from any consequences when they screw up.

But when a pilot follows their instructions and flies into the wrong airspace, it's the pilots fault, legally speaking.

See my tagline

[zeugma]

I'm so glad that airspace around washington is fully protected from us mere serfs who would have the gall to even attempt to cross over its 'airspace'.

[snopercod]

The American royalty in D.C. must be protected! (cough...)