CAA: GA News, "Local flight schools assessing security"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Wednesday, January 9, 2002

Local flight schools assessing security
Terrorism of Sept. 11 and weekend incident in Florida prompt calls for
scrutiny at small airports.
By John Fritze
The Indianapolis (IN) Star


Bloor Redding climbed out of his single-propeller airplane and put his
feet back on solid ground -- another successful touchdown for the
logbook.

Up there, on his round-trip jaunt to Bloomington, questions about
airport security and teen-age suicide pilots couldn't have felt farther
away, a noisy debate drowned out by the engine.
 
"That was just an isolated thing," Redding said of the 15-year-old
Floridian, Charles Bishop, who stole an airplane from his flight school
on Saturday and crashed it into a Tampa building, killing himself. 

However remote, the incident has prompted calls for tighter security at
smaller airports and has raised questions about whether teen-agers too
young to drive a car should be allowed behind the controls of an
airplane.

Some have suggested increasing the minimum age of pilots or performing
more thorough psychological evaluations.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration said regulations
could change -- more a product of Sept. 11 than the Tampa incident --
but that it was too early to talk specifics. 

Redding, 71, who has been taking lessons for about a year at Indy Aero
Services at Mount Comfort Airport, said little could be done to prevent
what happened in Florida. 

David S. Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association in
Washington, disagreed.

"We're rewriting the book on threats since September 11th. Things that
were unthinkable before are actually occurring," he said. "It needs to
be talked about and looked at and reviewed."

But flight instructors and airport managers note that airplanes seldom
are stolen and argue that small planes, including the ones used to train
private pilots normally can't do very much damage.

"These airplanes weigh less than some pickup trucks," said Darin
Schroeder, who manages Greenwood Municipal Airport in Johnson County.
"We're not a good choice to do a lot of destruction."

The Tampa plane, a single-engine Cessna 172R, weighs about 1,600 pounds
when empty, cruises at roughly 135 mph and carries 56 gallons of fuel. 

More than 70 flight schools operate in Indiana, and 3,908 private pilots
live here, according to the FAA. The state has more than 1,100 student
pilots. 

In the past two years, 17 people have died in small plane crashes --
fewer than one half of 1 percent of all light-aircraft pilots.

That kind of statistic puts events such as the one in Florida in
perspective, said Keith Mordoff, a spokesman for the Aircraft Owners and
Pilots Association.

"This wasn't really a breach of security as it was a breach of trust
between that flight instructor and that student," he said.

The association, with 375,000 members, recommends that the FAA require
photos on pilot licenses and check new pilot certificates against
terrorist watch lists. The group made those suggestions about a month
ago, in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. 

Currently, there is no minimum age to take flying lessons, and there are
few regulations for students under 16. 

Meanwhile, private pilots -- even those old enough to be certified --
don't have to undergo rigorous psychological evaluations before getting
their license.

Those ideas have been tossed around the most as targets for change. Of
course, small-plane aviators note that Bishop was only one year away
from getting his student certificate and that a more complete
psychological evaluation might not have found a problem. 

Law enforcement officials say Bishop was taking Accutane, an acne
medication that has been investigated by federal authorities because of
possible links to suicide and depression.

The Food and Drug Administration says 147 people taking Accutane, which
affects the body's central nervous system, either committed suicide or
were hospitalized for suicide attempts from 1982 to May 2000.

There has yet to be any conclusive evidence, however, that the drug
causes depression or suicide, and its manufacturer, Hoffman-LaRoche,
maintains it is safe.

FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Cory said the nation's newly created
Transportation Security Administration would consider regulation changes
once it is fully operational. 

Marvin Christie, a Beech Grove doctor, performs about 500 medical
evaluations each year on area pilots. Roughly 10 percent of them fail
the test, which is required by the FAA, he said. 

"The FAA primarily is concerned with sudden incapacitation," such as a
heart attack, said Christie, who is also a pilot. "We all try our best
to make the skies as safe as possible, but it's extremely difficult to
prevent something from happening."

Mark Lee, a flight instructor at Indy Aero since June, said trust is an
important part of his job.

"The relationship between student and instructor is like the
relationship between father and son." 


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