Landmarks Vulnerable to Suicide Pilots

W A S H I N G T O N, July 2 — Despite post-Sept. 11 security improvements, the White House and other landmarks remain vulnerable to a suicide pilot carrying a private planeload of explosives, experts say.

Three recent incidents showed how easily private planes can enter restricted zones:

Over the weekend, Air Force jets scrambled twice to intercept two private planes that inadvertently entered the restricted air space around Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland where President Bush was staying.

Less than two weeks earlier, an errant private pilot flew into the restricted area around the Washington Monument, which put the aircraft as near as four miles to the White House.

In February, a 15-year-old boy stole an airplane from a flight school at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport in Florida and smashed it into the 28th floor of a downtown Tampa office building, killing himself.

Private planes remain barred from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport across the Potomac River from the capital, and the Washington Monument restrictions prohibit them from flying lower than 18,000 feet within a 15-mile radius of the monument.

And over the July Fourth holiday, the Federal Aviation Administration has banned planes from flying near the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

"Unfortunately, we're still vulnerable," said John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House Transportation aviation subcommittee. "It's impossible to regulate the hundreds of thousands of private planes that take off daily. We're going to have to do a better job of looking for bad guys."

More than 200,000 of the 215,000 planes flying in the United States are small private planes, known as general aviation aircraft, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

A spokesman for the group, Warren Morningstar, said most are too small to do much damage. A fully loaded Cessna 172, the most popular small plane, weighs 2,400 pounds, as much as a small car and cannot carry a substantial payload, he said.

Private planes still pose a danger, said Paul Hudson, executive director of the advocacy group Aviation Consumer Action Project.

"Even a small plane could carry several hundred pounds (of explosives) and could do significant damage to a building like the White House," Hudson said.

Additionally, Air Force F-16s are not certain remedies for a determined intruder. They didn't catch up with the pilot who strayed over Washington until he was over Fredericksburg, Va., more than 50 miles to the south.

"It's easy to look at timelines after the event and say it took them a long time to get there," said Army Maj. Barry Venable, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command. "An airplane is flying already; you have to catch up to it."

Since the incident over Washington, which resulted in partial evacuation of the White House, NORAD has shifted some planes to enable a quicker response to a violations of restricted airspace, Mica said.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the response time has been reduced through better coordination between the Defense Department and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Former Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo said private aircraft should have tracking devices and equipment that prevents an unauthorized pilot from taking off.

"We don't know as a country how to begin to address the problem of general aviation," said Schiavo, now a lawyer representing victims of airplane crashes. "You're going to have to control the aircraft. Eventually, we're going to have to require more expensive and sophisticated equipment on the plane."

Former Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo said private aircraft should have tracking devices and equipment that prevents an unauthorized pilot from taking off.

Cars are hotwired by high school kids all the time. How is a small airplane going to be any different?

There's an effort going on to trash civilian aviation. I maintain that citizens have a right of travel using any means possible, to the extent that safety allows.

There are nut cases that drive cars every day and do evil deeds. There are nut cases that drive trucks filled with explosives and do evil things. But just because a small airplane MIGHT do something, is hardly a reason to end our right to travel in the mode we like.

The Temporary Flight Restrictions put on over the 4th of July are an effort to entrap pilots and generate media attention, so as to justify additional curbs on citizen aircraft. A suicide pilot will not observe the rules! Duh! And a mile wide TFR is not enough distance or warning time to intercept any aircraft. Therefore, they are entirely meaningless.

This story is nothing more than another attempt of idiots that know nothing to remove all General Aviation.

Schiavo - The person quoted in the article, and an anti-aviation joke, is laughed at by anyone in the aviation community.

The example used in Tampa or the white house is proof that these planes rarely do any damage, or it is minimal.

I'd like to see the same types of regulations that I have to abide by as a General Aviation Pilot be applied to the trucking industry.

They put a no-fly zone around the St. Louis Arch, but anyone with a minivan could potentially get thousands of pounds of explosives closer to the Arch than an airplane ever could, and with a lot better accuracy, I might add.

General Aviation is the whipping post of these idiots because they feel like they can show the public they are protecting you.

What a farce. Do you actually feel better protected with these kinds of regulations. It is an attempt, IMHO, to eliminate the legitimate flying by thousands of people who love this country and would do anything for it, yet our own FAA crumbles to the requests of local politicians to close airspace.

Hello, the Terrorists didn't use small planes did they, because of weight and balance requirements, you wouldn't be bale to blow up squat.

Schiavo is a joke, knows nothing accept how to get her face in the press. Her credibility is nill with most in the Aviation Community.

Regards,
Joe

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