Government Advocacy

Pilots Voice Concerns to TSA on Security Proposal

By Chris Dancy

Senior AOPA leaders joined with other general aviation groups at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on October 15th to share pilots’ concerns over the Large Aircraft Security Program. As reported on aopa.org last week, the program proposes significant new security requirements on operators of larger general aviation aircraft.

Andy Cebula, executive vice president of government affairs and Craig Spence, vice president of general aviation security, represented AOPA’s 415,000 members at the meeting, calling on the government to hold public meetings and provide more than the currently allotted 60-days for comments to be filed with the Agency.

“It’s important that pilots be given an opportunity to understand this proposal and respond. Extending the comments period is crucial,” said Andy Cebula. “Because the initiative is so far reaching, the TSA should also hold public meetings to allow the general aviation community to provide face-to-face feedback and comments to TSA representatives.”

The TSA proposed rule includes a number of initiatives—flight crewmember criminal history records checks, watch list matching of passenger manifests, biennial third party audits of each aircraft operator, and new airport security requirements—that could be problematic for general aviation.

October 16, 2008