Rifton Aviation Services in the News - January 11
Tampa incident brings tighter rules to Orange County's flight schools.
By Anuradha Raghunathan
Times Herald-Record
Nice Jewish boys don't fly airplanes.
Mike Freed had grown up hearing this as a teen-ager in the 1970s. Freed
had told himself that he was a nice boy all right, but he would fly.
"Flying is the most incredible thing I've ever done and will ever do,"
said the 48-year-old entrepreneur, who runs a vending company in Orange
County. "There is something magical about an air****t."
But part of that freedom, and the easy access to aviation, came into
question last weekend, when a 15-year-old stole a four-seat Cessna from a
flight school and crashed it into a Bank of America Plaza building in
downtown Tampa, Fla. The youth's suicide mission was a small-scale replay
of the World Trade Center attacks, though no one else was injured.
The teenager had expressed sympathy for Osama bin Laden in a suicide
note.
Aviation buffs like Freed swear that one of the defining freedoms in
America is the ability to fly your own little Cessna out of and into any
of the thousands of small general aviation air****ts that dot the country.
Freed loves walking up and down runways; he enjoys breaking through the
clouds in his airplane just four minutes after take-off, and he is
passionate about teaching flying.
"Flying is part of our freedom," said Freed, who has nearly 1,000 hours
of flight instruction behind him. He offers private flying lessons at the
Orange County Air****t in Montgomery.
That freedom is tightening up. On Wednesday, the Federal Aviation
Administration issued new guidelines to the 4,500 flight schools across
the country. The mid-Hudson has several flight schools, including two out
of Orange County Air****t and one out of Randall Air****t in the Town of
Wallkill.
The guidelines seek to prevent what happened at Tampa.
That Saturday, the teen-ager came for his flight lessons 15 minutes
early. He picked up the emergency manuals and the keys to a plane. He
entered the restricted area because the air****t authorities knew him. He
then untied the airplane and took off.
The FAA is now asking flight schools and flight instructors to follow
simple procedures: Use different keys for the airplane ignition and for
the airplane door; check IDs of students; give the ignition key to the
student only when the student arrives at the aircraft.
Regulatory authorities say that there are two goals – protect consumers
from attack and prevent the use of aircraft as weapons.
At Orange County Air****t, the management has already sent out the new
guidelines to the two flight schools there.
Donna Squillante , director of operations at Freedom Air Inc., one of the
flight schools at the Orange County Air****t, says that at her school, two
of the four planes are kept locked, inside locked hangars. Two other
planes are locked and tied down.
General aviation practitioners see the Tampa incident as a breach of
trust and not as a breach of security.
"It was the motivation of one young man," said Dick Knapinski, spokesman
for the National Association of Flight Instructors. "This was a single
incident involving a troubled young man."
But aviation experts across the country admit that the general aviation
system could do with some tightening.
Today, there are no background checks on the students who come to learn
flying at a local school. The only restrictions are that the student
cannot fly solo until he or she is 16, and that a student cannot get a
pilot's license until he or she is 17.
As for the pilot's license itself, it is nothing more than a piece of
paper – slightly larger than an average business card. It has identifiers
like name, nationality, *** and hair color, but there is no photo
identification.
Also, in the case of aircraft rentals, anyone can walk in with a valid ID
and a pilot's license and rent an airplane out of the Orange County
Air****t – just as a consumer might rent a car.
How do you regulate?
When trying to draft security recommendations, regulators are faced with
the enormity and the unorganized nature of general aviation. The segment
includes everything from crop dusters to emergency medical aircraft to
news helicopters.
And there are nearly 200,000 United States registered general aviation
aircraft that use nearly 18,000 public and private air****ts in the
country.
While commercial air****ts like La Guardia Air****t and Stewart
International Air****t have seen steep security restrictions, ranging from
baggage screening to ID checking, the small general aviation air****ts
have not faced such scrutiny since Sept. 11.
By and large, the take-offs and landings of general aviation aircraft are
not even monitored by any agency. Many of these airplanes fly under what
are called Visual Flight Rules. So pilots do not have to inform the FAA
before taking off or landing.
And once they are up in the air, pilots simply follow the rule of the
sky: see and be seen.
Even today, a single-engine plane can take off from, say, Orange County
Air****t or Dutchess County Air****t and fly over Indian Point.
"We have told pilots not to fly low or circle over nuclear power
plants," said Jim Peters, an FAA spokesman. "If a single-engine Cessna
172 were circling Indian Point, we would probably be contacted by the
plant management."
Aviation experts say it is harder to regulate general aviation because it
is almost like private trans****tation. Many general aviation aircraft are
owned by individuals.
Also, experts say that the general aviation aircraft that take off
unannounced in the many and sundry air****ts across the country are too
small to cause any damage even if they were in the path of a commercial
jet.
The Tampa teen-ager took the four-seat Cessna through restricted air
space over MacDill Air Force Base, where military officers are
coordinating the war effort.
In its brief 9- to 12-minute journey, the plane also ended up flying
1,000 feet above a Southwest Airlines flight.
Authorities, however, are not worried.
"I cannot imagine a scenario where a terrorist would take a small plane
and ram it into a flying plane," said Fritz Kass , director of aviation
at Orange County Air****t. "It's just not going to work."
Kass was the assistant chief of operations for the Naval Sup****t Force
during "Operation Desert Storm" in the Gulf War.
But questions still remain about whether these small planes could carry
bombs or biological agents and thereby cause damage.
General aviation is an economic driver in Orange County. On the cor****ate
aviation front, executives from Home Depot, Allegiance Healthcare and
Baxter fly into Orange County Air****t, and United Nations representatives
fly into the Rifton Aviation facility at Stewart International Air****t.
Aside from the economic aspect, there are the entertainment and
educational factors. Dozens of flying buffs have their own airplanes.
Orange County Air****t, for instance, is home to nearly 245 general
aviation aircraft of all sizes and shapes.
In December, Trans****tation Secretary Norman Mineta suggested several
steps for better general aviation security, from fencing air****ts to
using biometric devices to verify identity.
He also recommended an automated system that will allow qualified general
aviation air****ts to have access to "watch lists" for criminals.
But how much security can be built into tiny air****ts?
"There are thousands of air****ts in this country with just one
airplane," observed Jim Christiansen, chairman of the National Air
Trans****tation Association, which oversees issues relating to general
aviation. "There are air****ts that don't even have fences, let alone
National Guardsmen and metal detectors."
At the privately run Randall Air****t, owner Charles Brodie couldn't agree
more. He runs a one-man operation and the air****t is supervised only when
he is around. "There is only one person and only so many hours in a
day," said Brodie.
But even as air****t owners and regulators grapple with the balance
between security and feasibility, enthusiasts like Freed say the
terrorist attacks assaulted their basic freedoms.
Freed, the son of a truck delivery man, says that he had the ability to
further his aviation dream only because he was in America. He now owns a
single-engine Piper.
"The beauty is that we have the ability to do that in this country," said
Freed. "This (freedom) is a part of America. I just hope everyone acts in
a reasonable manner."
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