What’s Ahead For General Aviation Airport Security?
I hope reason and good common sense!
Since September 11th, a great deal of discussion has been taking place in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere about implementing new security requirements for general aviation. This is only natural due to the fact that the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. used airplanes as weapons of mass destruction.
The means of affecting major injury to our nation are virtually unlimited. In transportation alone, over-the-road trucking, the maritime shipping industry, railroads, and all the other modes of transportation are readily available to terrorists for their destructive acts. We now hear threats of massive explosions in apartment buildings, attacks on nuclear facilities, the spread of disease such as anthrax, dirty bombs, and the list goes on and on.
No sane person in this country wants another terrorist attack like the one on September 11th. Certainly, those of us who have spent our lives in aviation were appalled by the use of airplanes as “guided missiles.” But any attempt to prevent future use of aircraft, particularly general aviation aircraft, to create mass destruction must be approached in a cautious, carefully, thought out manner.
There are some good ideas around. For example, better airport lighting, picture identification on pilots’ licenses, biometric “smart” cards to identify employees and tenants at the larger general aviation and reliever airports, or security fencing where appropriate. These are all good measures that can be implemented with little cost to the public.
However, we must avoid a broad brush, the “one-size fits all” approach to improving security. We have a huge system of general aviation airports throughout the United States. Attempting to rigidly control the movement of people and aircraft at all general aviation airports would result in enormous cost, inhibit general aviation operations, and more importantly and in most instances, do little to improve security.
Instead of “locking down” our general aviation airports, possibly a better approach would be to emphasize the need for everyone to be alert and aware of suspicious activity around our airports and report it IMMEDIATELY to the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the local law enforcement agency.
Doesn’t it make more sense to direct our efforts toward looking for the “bad guys” rather than spending vast sums of time and money making it more and more difficult for the great majority of honest citizens?
