"Florida airport tests new security system"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Craig field tests new security system
The $1 million high-tech pilot project will monitor four Florida airfields.
By DAVID HUNT
The Jacksonville (FL) Times-Union


A network of night-vision cameras and computer transmitters is being
installed at Craig Municipal Airport as part of a security experiment that
could help thwart everything from thefts to terrorism at Florida's
airfields. 

Craig is one of four airports participating in a pilot program for the state
Department of Transportation's Integrated General Aviation Airport Security
System. The others are in Gainesville and Hernando and Citrus counties. 

Richard Null, the department's aviation project manager, said the nearly $1
million pilot project establishes a central security center watching over
the four airfields. 

Null said FDOT worked with South Carolina-based LPA Group to develop the
system. In testing it, he said officials are looking at how well it tracks
movements, how apt the system is to sound alerts and how long it takes
authorities to respond. 

Depending on the results, the equipment could be rolled out statewide,
although cost might be an issue, Null said. 

"Even if it's really, really successful it may or may not turn into
something bigger," he said. 

Jacksonville Aviation Authority spokesman Michael Stewart said the
24-hour-a-day monitoring system is welcome at Craig, a public airport in
Arlington off Atlantic Boulevard, where the control tower is typically
unstaffed between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. 

The equipment likely will be installed next month, he said, and the pilot
program is scheduled to run through September. 

Craig was site of 162,000 takeoffs and landings in 2006, although many of
those can be attributed to flight training.


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