CAA: GA News, "GA airport security questioned"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Saturday, October 19, 2002

Airport security questioned 
By Charles McCarthy
The Fresno (CA) Bee

 
CHOWCHILLA -- Airport security precautions at the city's airport are
drawing fire in the wake of recent terror warnings from Washington.

The criticism comes from Bob Gudgel, who operates Gudgel's Aero Ag
Service from the airport.

Friday, Gudgel used a folded scrap of paper instead of a city-issued
gate card to open the airfield's electrically controlled main gate.

Inside the field are planes rigged to spray crops with pesticides,
herbicides and other chemicals. There is no security behind a
barbed-wire topped fence with five gates that the city installed with a
federal grant long before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, complained
Gudgel.

"We realize the front gate is a problem," Chowchilla City Manager Nancy
Red said. "We're going to totally replace it. We try to do the best that
we can do."

On Friday, other drive-through gates in the airport fence, as well as a
walk-in gate, were wide open. The only gate that appeared to be locked
was one with an "Emergency Lane" sign.

The city would look into that right away, Red promised.

"There's not enough funding that's available for an on-site caretaker,"
Red said.

Chowchilla police are responsible for patrolling the quiet airport, just
a few blocks south of the city's main business district.

Both the city and Gudgel received an Oct. 11 Federal Aviation
Administration security alert. It warns: "Recent statements apparently
by al-Qaida leaders threaten attacks against U.S. economic interests."

Airport operators are cautioned to report anyone wishing to obtain
aircraft without presenting proper credentials or who apparently have
valid credentials without a corresponding level of aviation knowledge.

It's the latest of several security warnings, including those that
grounded all crop-duster planes after last year's terrorist attacks.
Those followed reports that some suspected terrorists were interested in
agricultural spray operations.

Gudgel has operated crop-duster planes from the paved 3,850-foot
Chowchilla runway since 1962. The runway lights can be turned on at
night by anyone knowing a radio signal. His planes are parked behind his
second locked-gate fence, but four other crop-dusters on the airport are
not, he said.

"You could wire these planes just like you do a car," Gudgel said.
"There's no lock on these hoppers."


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