TSA Proposal—Further Erosion of Aviation Freedom

America’s Transportation Security Administration is in the process of writing some rules that it says “will increase the security of general aviation”. General aviation covers everything that isn’t a military or scheduled commercial flight. If adopted, the new rules would apply to all general aviation aircraft over 12,500 pounds, a category that, by some estimates, includes more than 10,000 aircraft in the US.

Among other measures, the new rules would require fingerprinting and background-checking of flight crews, cross-referencing passenger manifests with no-fly lists, and conducting “safety threat assessments” on passengers and crew members.

Kip Hawley of the TSA says, “General aviation operators are excellent security partners and this will give them a strong common framework for security.” He added that these measures “will reduce risk while supporting the open nature of the general aviation industry.”

However, there is widespread discontent amongst those who will be affected and who disagree with what has been described as TSA “spin”.

The American general aviation community is angry that many of the proposed rules will be not only time consuming and annoying, but will, in many cases, also incur financial costs. For example, nearly 300 general aviation airports will be required to adopt potentially expensive security programmes, the costs of which will inevitably be passed on to those who use those airports.

The Experimental Aircraft Association, which represents private pilots and aircraft enthusiasts, is extremely unhappy with the proposed rules. “These new regulations would compel many operators of large vintage aircraft, warbirds, turboprops and others over 12,500 pounds to comply with new, costly and burdensome requirements which, frankly, do not appear to equate with their risk assessment profiles,” says Douglas Macnair, vice president of government relations. He added that general aviation aircraft do not usually carry the public and, in most instances, pilots are personally acquainted with their passengers.

The EAA has compiled a list of aircraft that would be affected by the new rules. It includes aircraft like the DC-2 and DC-3, the Sikorsky S-61 helicopter and the Convair CV-240, the last of which was manufactured in 1956. The EAA points out that the proposed rules would bring restrictive requirements to many aircraft—like the B-25 and B-17—that are currently “flown in tribute to those who fought to secure the very freedoms now being threatened.”

With the huge numbers of personnel that would be required to administer and implement the new rules, there is obviously a great deal of vested interest in the outcome by private companies who stand to make a fortune from a captive market in the increasing bloated aviation “security” industry in the US.

The TSA will seek 60 days of public comment before moving forward. It will undoubtedly receive a great deal.