CAA: GA News, "How safe are smaller airports?"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tuesday, January 8, 2002

How safe are smaller airports?
FLORIDA CRASH RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT GENERAL AVIATION ACCESS
BY JOHN WOOLFOLK AND AARON DAVIS
The San Jose (CA) Mercury News


A waist-high wire fence with an open gate at San Jose's Reid-Hillview
Airport is all that separates the curious from rows of small, loosely
secured airplanes, some of which can be started without a key.

Until recently, few thought that a suicidal pilot might take such a plane
and slam it into a skyscraper. But a despondent Florida teenager who crashed
a light plane into a Tampa bank Saturday has heightened concern that
oversight of recreational flying is too casual.

Federal Aviation Administration officials, who warned after terrorists
hijacked jetliners on Sept. 11 that light planes also pose a threat, said
Monday they will issue a general aviation security advisory after meeting
with industry representatives.

``We do consider security to be a challenge because the industry is so large
and diverse,'' said FAA spokeswoman Tammy Jones, noting that there are
340,000 private and student pilots in the country and 18,000 general
aviation airports.

Each day, hundreds of small planes fly in and out of Bay Area airports,
including Reid-Hillview, Palo Alto, and Half Moon Bay. Security at
Reid-Hillview, where 500 planes take off and land daily, is similar to that
at other small urban airports. Rural airstrips often have little security.

Flight instructors and pilots, however, fear that a freak incident that
probably no one could have foreseen or prevented will lead to costly and
unreasonable regulations.

``This was not a breach of security; this was an abuse of trust,'' said Phil
Boyer, president of the national Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
``An apparently troubled young man who had legitimate access to an aircraft
abused the trust of his flight instructor and stole the airplane with tragic
results.''

But pilots say more security is needed. Industry groups last month offered
seven recommendations including tamper-proof pilot licenses and identity and
baggage checks of passengers.

Roy Kaufmann, a recreational pilot who keeps his plane at Reid-Hillview,
admits security is ``pretty lax.''

``Anyone can walk on the field,'' Kaufmann said as he worked on his Piper
Cherokee 140. ``I think it could be better.''

But like most pilots, Kaufmann isn't too worried. The airport is well lit,
security officials keep tabs on planes, cars and people, and police
regularly hang out there while writing their reports. No one could recall
the last time a plane was stolen there.

Pilots note that 2,500-pound small craft do little damage when they crash.
On Sept. 12, 1994, Frank Corder, a truck driver, stole a single-engine plane
from a Maryland airport and crashed into the White House to little effect.

``All it did was smudge the paint,'' said Robert J. Collins, president of
the Aviation Crime Prevention Institute. ``What it says to me is that
there's little truth to all these warnings and dire predictions that little
airplanes are little more than bombs waiting to happen.''

Saturday's crash in Tampa killed only 15-year-old student pilot Charles
Bishop. It destroyed the Cessna 172 he was flying but caused little damage
to the Bank of America building he hit. He took off in the plane even though
he was not licensed to fly solo. A key is needed to get into and fly the
Cessna, but many older planes can be started by pushing a couple of buttons,
flight instructors say.

``The type of airplanes we have here, if you run them into a building, it's
like a bug into a windshield,'' said Roger Kuykendall, a flight instructor
at Amelia Reid Aviation in San Jose.

But light planes are stolen from time to time. Nationally, 15 disappeared in
2001, and 11 went missing in 2000, said the Aviation Crime Prevention
Institute in Maryland, which tracks stolen aircraft.

Authorities have linked many of the thefts to drug traffickers. Others have
more obscure motives.

In 1988, a man taking flying lessons at the West Valley Flying Club in Palo
Alto stole a single-engine plane, painted ``Impeach Bush and Reagan'' on it
and landed it in Golden Gate Park in what appeared to be an ill-conceived
political statement.

The West Valley club has posted two $5,000-reward signs near the entrance
seek information leading to the return of two planes stolen this summer, one
in Southern California, another in Arizona.

Such periodic thefts, combined with the threat of more terrorist attacks,
led the FAA to ground general aviation planes near major airports for three
months after Sept. 11.

All the restrictions were lifted in late December. But short of grounding
small planes all over again, pilots, airport officials and security experts
around the Bay Area say there may be little that can be done to stop a
repeat of the weekend crash in Florida.

Since Sept. 11, federal authorities have combed through the rosters at
flight schools like Tradewinds Aviation in San Jose, looking for students
who fit a suspicious profile, instructor James McLaughlin said. No students
were removed from Tradewinds, he said.

The FAA requires pilots to answer a host of questions about their background
to obtain a license, McLaughlin said. The Tradewinds school occasionally
advises students to leave after determining they don't take the studies
seriously enough or have unrealistic goals, McLaughlin said. He has never
come across a student he thought was dangerous, but added, ``there's no way
to know.''

``We're not psychologists,'' McLaughlin said.

Pilots say they're eager to allay public fears of runaway planes, but urge
people to put incidents like the Tampa crash into perspective.

``We're open to anything that would make flying safer,'' McLaughlin said.
``We don't need any more bad publicity. It's just so unfortunate that this
is so newsworthy. How many people were killed by drunk drivers?''

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