Posted on 02/19/2010 7:38:33 PM PST by LouAvul
After 9/11, cockpit doors were sealed, air marshals were added and airport searches became more aggressive, all to make sure an airliner could never again be used as a weapon. Yet little has been done to guard against attacks with smaller planes. That point was driven home with chilling force on Thursday when a Texas man with a grudge against the IRS crashed his single-engine plane into an office building in a fiery suicide attack. One person inside the building was also killed.
"It's a big gap," said R. William Johnstone, an aviation security consultant and former staff member of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks. "It wouldn't take much, even a minor incident involving two simultaneously attacking planes, to inflict enough damage to set off alarm bells and do some serious harm to the economy and national psyche."
The suburban Georgetown Municipal Airport that pilot Joe Stack entered hours before his airborne attack in nearby Austin had the casual atmosphere of a sleepy parking garage. Pilots were not subject to baggage checks, metal detector scans or pat-downs. And they are usually not required to file flight plans.
"How are they going to stop it? This guy had a hangar, and he had access to the airport," said Beth Ann Jenkins, president of Pilot's Choice, a flight school near where Stack kept his Piper.
Travis McLain, manager of the airport, said: "I don't know of a rule or regulation or safety precaution that could have prevented what happened yesterday."
The easy access and lack of security are the result of years of debate - and stalemate - over how much of a threat small aircraft pose as terror weapons and how they could be regulated without stifling commerce and pilot freedom.
While the airlines quickly accepted tougher security after Sept. 11, the general aviation industry, which includes everything from privately owned propeller-driven planes to large corporate jets, have aggressively fought new measures.
The proposed rules would require that operators of medium and large general-aviation aircraft demonstrate that flight crews have undergone a criminal background check. They would also be required to verify passengers are not on the no-fly lists already used by large airlines.
Private pilots fly approximately 200,000 small and medium-size planes in the U.S., using 19,000 airports, most of them small. The planes' owners insist the aircraft have nothing in common with airliners but the sky.
"I don't see a gaping security hole here," said Tom Walsh, an aviation security consultant. "In terms of aviation security, there are much bigger fish to fry than worrying about small aircraft."
He said most would-be terrorists would draw the same conclusion - that tiny aircraft don't pack a big enough punch.
Planes like Stack's weigh just a few thousands pounds and carry no more than 100 gallons of fuel, he noted. A Boeing 767 weighs 400,000 pounds and carries up to 25,000 gallons of fuel.
Walsh and other general aviation advocates argue that stringent security and bureaucracy would deter recreational fliers and slow down a vibrant, multibillion-dollar general aviation industry, causing economic damage.
"What it comes down to is that the cure could be worse than the disease," he said.
Jeffrey Price, a Denver-based aviation expert, said: "If I own my plane, I can drive to the airport, get in and just take off. Pilots want that sense of freedom. ... Like motorcycle riders."
Every pilot, from the beginner student to the commercial airline pilot, is checked against the government's terror watchlist. Also, under federal rules imposed after Sept. 11, people enrolling in flight schools must show proof of U.S. citizenship or, if they are foreigners, must undergo a background check.
All pilots of every stripe must have with them every time they fly a medical certificate attesting to their health. The certificate is based on a physical exam, but the application form also includes questions about the pilot's mental health. Stack's medical certificate was current, dated May 2009. He was an instrument rated pilot, able to fly single-engine and multiengine airplanes, and no enforcement action had ever been taken against him.
Beyond that, however, most security measures at general aviation airports are voluntary.
The Transportation Department's inspector general, Richard L. Skinner, reviewed security at several general aviation airports last year, including three in the Houston area, and concluded that general aviation "presents only limited and mostly hypothetical threats to security."
Skinner did endorse efforts to lock or disable parked planes to prevent people bent on mayhem from stealing them.
Tougher restrictions were debated after Sept. 11 and after a few incidents in which pilots deliberately crashed small planes into buildings.
In 1994, a Maryland truck driver with a history of instability crashed a plane on the south lawn of the White House. In 2002, a 15-year-old boy stole a plane and crashed it into a downtown skyscraper in Tampa, Fla. Pilots of small planes have also frequently flown into the secure airspace over the key government buildings in Washington.
The general aviation lobby has exerted its considerable clout to fend off new measures. The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, or AOPA, National Business Aviation Association, National Air Transportation Association and General Aviation Manufacturers Association spent $6 million lobbying in Washington last year.
"There was no way to impose one overall security structure that would fit every general aviation airport's needs," said AOPA spokesman Chris Dancy. The association has about 400,000 members.
At the Georgetown airport, where 240 small aircraft are based, manager McLain said she hopes Stack's suicidal attack doesn't lead to an overreaction.
"I would hope that common sense and cooler heads would prevail," McLain said.
The Constitution regulates the government, moron, not the people. The people are free to do what they wish.
There's nothing in the Constitution that gives the government the right to regulate much of any part of our lives, all for our own good, dontcha know?
As a pilot who makes his living flying a small airplane, I agree with you. Quit taking away what freedoms we have left. How come after Ok city they didn’t take away the right to drive U-Hauls? No more homeowner movers allowed!
Luv ya, metmom! Tolsti, the asshat, is a troll. (pardon my Marine Corps “French”)
Congress will get, and Tolsti needs a sharp snap of a newspaper across the snout. It has always worked miracles with my dogs.
Mine, too! Kick-ass Cessna Caravan in Flying Mag today!
Reminds me of base jumper logic. Just not impressed. Except base jumping usually only harms themselves.
“Frankly GA’s a big risk in general with little benefit except for the bored wealthy.
Someday someone will use one for a chem or bio attack like Atta wanted. This one area I’d like to see more or less cleaned up entirely.”
Add this pilot to the list to correct this nonsense.
I am NOT rich, I’ve been in love with aicraft since I cannot remember. To fly was something my father told me I could always learn to do. And I did! it is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. You do not need to be rich, just dedicated and have priorities to make personal dreams come true.
As for cleaning it up, better stop all rentals of Ryder trucks right now while your at it.
Are you that uninformed that you don't know most of General Aviation is not the bored wealthy traveling to scenic airports for a $100.00 hamburger?
More business gets done daily through General Aviation than anyone would imagine.
Business travel accounts for more flying hours than any other branch of general aviation. Approximately 70% of all general aviation is associated with some commercial activity, such as business travel, construction, aerial application of fertilizer and pesticides, or flight instruction. according to Answers.com
But, I am such a staunch anti-Socialist that I can recognize Liberal Socialist Class Warfare and call you on it.
You are the Liberal - Socialist - Fascist - Communist - Democrat enemy to responsible Conservatives.
I can kinda see the Ryder truck logic. However, planes did succeeed where trucks failed in 9/11. What can help stop that again? Security. GA craft aren’t much good at smashing into things, but they are great to spray down things on people from. I *personally* don’t think the hobby of it is worth the risk.
Wow, I’ve been called a communist. My only 2 things I’m against that aren’t libertarian are planes and drugs.
Everything else, guns, taxes, spending, military, space research I’m a Reaganite on. Moreso than Reagan on guns.
But hey, it’s always interesting to be called something new in life.
To me, the freedom to fly is one of those things that sets America apart from other nations just like the ownership of firearms. If we lose that right then we lose a big part of what America is all about. Take a quick peek video and maybe you will feel a little better about the type of folks involved GA.
I know most GA people are great, I know many of them. People on this thread are a bit unbelievable in their fanatic attacks, which does make me wonder about some of their mental conditions.
However, GA is one of the greatest available methods now for spreading bio/chem weapons over populated areas. IF islamics use it that way, expect people to go ‘why wasn’t this stopped?’ and there’s not much of a good reason when it comes down to it.
GA isn’t just a hobby, it’s an industry critical to training pilots for all kinds of important needs for our nation.
There is little “spraying down” anyone is going to be doing with 99.9 percent of general aviation aircraft that is for sure.
Read up please, were trying to fill in those dark areas for you...
http://www.gaservesamerica.com/
We have enough trouble with liberals going after are firearm rights. We don’t need our freedom of even the sky taken away too.
"It's comfortable and functional. But not exactly luxurious," said Stowers, chairman of Stowers Machinery Corporation.
Stowers' Knoxville, Tenn. Caterpillar dealership has been his family's business for almost 50 years.
On his company plane, Stowers flies customers to caterpillar factories, in remote places commercial carriers don't fly.
In fact only 500 American cities are served by the major airlines, whereas private planes can access 5,000 smaller airports across the country. ****************************************************** http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/17/eveningnews/main5021145.shtml?source=RSSattr=Business_5021145 ********************************************************
Hobby Airport will be open tomorrow to only those pilots using visual flight rules, or VFR, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Commercial flights, which fly under IFR or instrument flight rules are not operating yet, said Roland Herwig, FAA spokesman in Oklahoma City.
"We do not know when it (Hobby) will be fully operational," Herwig said.
Still no word on when Bush Intercontinental Airport will reopen. ********************************************************* http://blogs.chron.com/hurricanes/2008/09/hobby_airport_open_to_small_pl.html *********************************************************
WICHITA, Kan., Jan. 15, 2010 - Cessna Aircraft Company, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, and CitationAir, a leader in fractional jet ownership, jet card membership and whole aircraft management, are supporting an effort by the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) to make available American business aircraft to the Haitian relief effort.
“We’ve turned our resources and customer contacts toward helping NBAA identify and mobilize the large fleet of business aircraft in America in support our nation’s relief efforts for our neighbors in Haiti,” said Cessna Chairman, President and CEO Jack J. Pelton. ****************************************************** http://skyhawksp.cessna.com/NewReleases/FeaturedNews/NewReleaseNumber-1192308515305.html *******************************************************
Some of these GA people volunteer to fly kids for Make a Wish, they've volunteered to help during floods.
It's amazing some of the things these rich old turds do with their aircraft!
Let us not forget, either, how much GA adds to the economy and how many jobs are attached to this business.
Call the VCs IBTZ!
I don’t think this will just be a solitary incident, next time it could be a tanker truck driver that disagreed with the IRS collection policies.
Or it could be as minimal as a late night cleaning crew that flushes sponges down all the toilets, or a few well placed dead vermin.
Regardless of how these people were judged or politically typecasted they are still people of America, a troubled American political party thats in disagreement with what the people want.
There should be no reason to now start a $5 billion defense system when the solution is something else, fix America.
Boot the democrats out, impeach an inept leader.
Nam Vet
If people would be rational and talk about the ups and downs, that’s one thing. Mostly it’s just insulting with you and errant both going that way, but also offering some counters. Too bad it has to be so nasty.
I don’t fly, it’s not necessary to get around CONUS.
Sorry about that post, I blew the links with my dang *’s.
Again, I apologize for the mess.
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