President's Perspective

We all must work together

Lately many AOPA members have come up to me and commented, "Boy, am I glad I don't have your job!" They are usually referring to the rash of airspace incursions in the Washington, D.C., area or one of the recent airport security issues. I almost hate to answer the telephone in the evening because so many calls have been to inform me of another wayward pilot not following the rules.

Violating the complex Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in D.C. is nothing new, but when incursions into the inner ring's Flight Restricted Zone (FRZ, often pronounced freeze) lead to evacuations of the Capitol, it makes the national news. This press attention began May 11 with the now-infamous flight of a pilot and his student-pilot passenger--directly over the heart of D.C.--in a Cessna 150. But it didn't stop there. Less than a week later, during inclement weather, a twin-engine airplane was escorted out of the skies for flying in much the same restricted area as the 150. Late in June, a corporate pilot flying a Beech King Air 350 also violated the D.C. airspace, causing another evacuation of the Capitol. And, over the July 4 weekend, a couple in a four-place Cessna flew over Maryland's Camp David when the president was in residence--which expands the prohibited airspace to 10 nautical miles. Local pilots, as these were, should have been very familiar with the area.

Don't assume all this chaos in the nation's capital has nothing to do with you if you don't live or fly there! Consider the panic generated by each incursion, and the concerns about small airplanes flying above the seat of our government. Elected officials and their staffs are disrupted from their work and sent into the streets. All of this inconvenience is then associated with general aviation aircraft.

To make matters worse, the breaches in airport security outside of D.C. are increasing. In mid-June a 14-year-old stole a Cessna 152 from Isbell Field in Fort Payne, Alabama, apparently walking through a typically unlocked gate, then flying the airplane over portions of the city before crash-landing onto an airport road. The Cessna was on the ramp, door unlocked and ignition keys on a clipboard inside the airplane. Within days the state aeronautics chief called for a reevaluation of the voluntary guidelines for small airports.

Days later an allegedly intoxicated 20-year-old man stole a small airplane at Danbury Municipal Airport in Connecticut and took two friends on a joyride that ended in a safe landing at Westchester County Airport in New York state--just a few miles from former President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Clinton's residence.

In last month's editorial for AOPA Pilot, I wrote, "If we all don't work to solve this clear and present problem, we might not like the national and local solutions that will be handed to us." Sadly, these words have come back to haunt us because, as I write this, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) has generated legislation that would impose unthinkable fines and penalties on a pilot who causes the Capitol to once again be evacuated. Senator Clinton (D-N.Y.) has developed legislation that questions much of the hard work AOPA and others have done on GA airport security to date, and proposes studies that could mean new regulations. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is calling on the FAA and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to tighten security protocols for GA. Connecticut's five U.S. representatives and two senators have written DHS chief Michael Chertoff, asking that DHS "review the security standards for general aviation airports and provide those facilities with the necessary guidance for security." Andrew J. Spano, county executive for Westchester County, New York, stated, "All GA airports should match an air-carrier standard for security."

The transgressions of a few are tarnishing all of us who fly, and their actions may impact our freedom of the skies. It is up to all of us to monitor and look for ways we can prevent these events from happening. We all encounter situations such as the gate that is always left open, the push-button lock that has the code posted for all to see, the hole in the fence that we use to avoid a longer walk. Call these to the attention of your airport manager, and make sure he or she does something about them. As a renter or flying club member, ask yourself if the airplane keys are in a place where they could be easily stolen. If so, call that to management's attention.

Keep these scenarios vividly in your mind and look for ways to prevent them from happening. When it comes to airspace, don't take any pilot's knowledge for granted. Use the 866/GA-SECUR(E) Airport Watch hotline to resolve issues you feel could impact airport security.

Do your part to diminish the media mania about every small airplane and small airport being a terrorist threat. If we all don't help to solve this clear and present problem, we might not like the national and local solutions that will be forced upon us.