It’s been a rough ride for aviation since September 11, 2001. What happened on that terrible day affected not only the airline industry, but dealt a major blow to general aviation as well.
The airline industry is losing billions of dollars as a result of this horrible terrorist attack. Fortunately, with the leadership of President Bush, our government took immediate action to ensure the continued viability of our air transportation industry. Financial aid has been provided to airline companies. Security measures are underway to, hopefully, ensure that what happened on September 11th, can never happen again. Airport screeners will soon become federal employees. New technology is being acquired to detect explosives in checked baggage. Cockpit doors are being made impassible to potential terrorist intrusion. Other steps too numerous to mention are being considered.
The best ally against future attacks is ourselves. The unthinkable has happened. We are now on guard against our enemies. I am confident that flight crews and passengers, in concert, will never permit a repetiton of this kind of terrorist attack against our country, even if a security breech occurs.
With the curtailment of general aviation flying during this period of national emergency, particularly in our more urban areas, many small businesses suffered greatly, some to the point of failure. Fortunately, we are just about back to normal. Congress is presently discussing providing financial assistance to general aviation businesses that have experienced significant loss in revenue as a result of the necessary action taken by the federal government following the terrorist attack.
As President Bush has stated so often and so well, things will never be the same again. Congress has taken the lead in ensuring the safety of our larger airports. We must all now lend a hand to do the same thing for our smaller general aviation airports. No new security regulations have been proposed for general aviation airports, but there are some things we can all do to help protect our industry.
As we operate our airports we need to be on the lookout for:
- Aircraft with unusual or unauthorized modifications.
- Persons or vehicles loitering for extended periods in the vicinity of the airport, especially in the airport operations area.
- Pilots who appear to be under the control of other persons.
- Persons with above average interest in aircraft and their performance capabilities.
- Persons wishing to obtain aircraft without presenting proper credentials.
- Persons who present apparently valid credentials but do not have a corresponding level of aviation knowledge.
- Stolen or missing aircraft.
- Anything that doesn’t look right or does not fit the pattern of lawful, normal activity at your airport.
How to Report Suspicious Activity
Call your local law enforcement agency or contact:
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Suite 300
1801 North Lamar
Dallas, Texas 75202-1795
(214) 720-2200 / www.fbi.gov
Help your airport develop a security plan:
1.) Conduct a security audit of the facility.
- Review and update as needed, or develop a vehicle/pedestrian ordinance.
- Ensure gates, fencing, and lighting are adequate to control and observe airport access.
- Increase signage defining access points and no-trespass areas.
- Conduct regular airport safety meetings with airport tenants, users and local and county law enforcement agencies.
- Control access to operations areas.
- Request additional comprehensive airport security inspections by local law enforcement.
- Greet all arriving strangers – both air and land sides.
- Develop a process to close the airport and restrict access to runways.
- Secure the runway for departing aircraft only, any airborne aircraft must be allowed to land.
- Report all unusual activities to local law enforcement.
2.) Develop a communications process to disseminate security planning information to the public and all airport users.
- Establish a security information bulletin board.
- Post vehicle/pedestrian ordinance.
- Develop an emergency contact plan.
- Establish a transient aircraft log.
- Display aerial photo of airport access points.
- Post copy of the security plan.
- Post copy of the emergency contact plan.
- Encourage pilots to file flight plans for all flights -VFR and IFR.
- Involve your local media contacts for security news releases.
- Use airport web site to post security information.
- Conduct regular meetings with airport tenants to discuss the airport security plan.
Working together, we will ensure that no enemy of the United States will ever again use a tool of our industry as a weapon against America.
