CAA: GA News, "Planes over stadiums fought"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Friday, September 6, 2002

Planes over stadiums fought 
Sports officials, fans worry over terror 
BY MARYANNE GEORGE
THE DETROIT (MI) FREE PRESS


While football fans at the University of Michigan and Michigan State
University will be watching players on the field Saturday, police and
school officials will be nervously scanning the skies for planes towing
banners, hoping they recognize all the planes. 

The flights were banned by the Federal Aviation Administration for
security reasons after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. But the new
Transportation Security Administration has begun issuing waivers to
known pilots -- those who have been known to the FAA in the past --
prompting protests from U-M, MSU and other college officials as well as
the National Football League and Major League Baseball. 

U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who attended the U-M game Saturday, said
he will introduce an amendment in Congress next week to the
Transportation Appropriation Bill to cut off funding for the waivers. 

Upton, of St. Joseph, was one of 12 members of the Michigan
congressional delegation who wrote to Secretary of Transportation Norman
Mineta in July asking him to ban stadium flyovers. 

As the anniversary of Sept. 11 approaches, university officials and
sports officials say the flights present a security risk that is not
worth taking. 

"This is a no-brainer," Upton said. 

But Jim Miller, owner of Air America Aerial Ads, based in Toledo, says
it's a struggle for power and control on the part of collegiate and
professional teams. Miller said his planes are safe and that he conducts
background checks on his pilots. 

The company will tow banners behind its planes at football games at U-M,
MSU, Ohio State and Notre Dame on Saturday. 

"U-M is having a control and revenue issue, not a security issue,"
Miller said. 

Miller said U-M officials have threatened to blacklist advertisers if
they don't stop using the banners. Three advertisers have pulled their
ads in the last two days, he said. 

U-M spokesman Bruce Madej said officials are keeping a list of
advertisers and some calls have been made informing advertisers they are
on the list. He denied any threats were made to advertisers. 

U-M Athletic Director Bill Martin said banner advertisers don't compete
with advertisers in the football program. U-M receives a flat fee from
the publisher of the program. 

"Do you think we'd take ads from 'totally nude entertainment' or Deja
Vu?" Martin said. "We search everything that comes in -- and allow
flying gas tanks overhead? This doesn't pass the doctrine of common
sense." 

MSU Athletic Director Ron Mason also opposes the planes. 

"This was dangerous before Sept. 11 and now who knows what will happen,"
Mason said. "Because of the way people sit in the stadium, there's no
way to scatter if something happens." 

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league is working with college
football along with baseball officials to ban the flights. "They make
fans uncomfortable. We are doing everything to minimize the risk and I
don't think these flights make any sense after Sept. 11." 

Lucy Calautti, director of government relations for the commissioner of
baseball, said the 30 major league teams have said they want the flights
banned. 

"Our clubs don't want the planes because they don't know who is in them"
and the Transportation Security Administration can't give assurances,
she said. 

Agency spokesman Brian Turmail said the 700 waivers that have been
issued since last year have gone mostly to pilots towing banners over
stadiums and arenas who have been known to TSA and FAA officials. 

Any new pilots are checked against a TSA watch list, but criminal
background checks are not done on pilots. Agency officials are studying
the possibility of doing such checks, Turmail said. Pilot verification
is also being considered.


   Post your opinion on this story in the CAA General Aviation Forum
http://www.californiaaviation.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=DCConfID2

*****************************************