Texas attack revives debate over private jets

Texas attack revives debate over private jets
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY



In late 2008, the Transportation Security Administration made a stunning and little-noticed projection: If a private jet flew into an urban office building, 3,000 people could be killed. That's a higher death total than in the Sept. 11 attacks.

The TSA used the estimate to justify a plan to impose security rules on 15,000 private jets, including requirements that jet operators check passengers against watch lists and keep weapons off their planes.

The proposal was labeled as potentially crippling to jet owners. More than 7,000 protest letters from private pilots, businesses and aviation groups forced the TSA to rewrite its plan. A new proposal is likely late this year, and security rules could take effect in 2011 — a decade after the 9/11 attacks.

TERROR REVIEW: Austin plane crash to be used for regulations

IN AUSTIN: Plane crash an echo of terrorism

The TSA's struggle to regulate private jets reflects the deep dispute over how much danger is posed by the planes, which fly in and out of thousands of airports with no TSA oversight. Even the Homeland Security Department is divided.

The TSA said large private planes "could be used effectively to commit a terrorist act." The Homeland Security inspector general said in a 2009 report that private aviation "does not present a serious homeland security vulnerability" requiring new TSA rules.

"There is a balance because we don't want to really restrict (private) aviation," said Vahid Motevalli, former head of George Washington University's aviation safety and security program. "But it shouldn't be totally ignored."

The jets the TSA is looking at are a small portion of the nation's 220,000 private airplanes. Most private planes are small, piston-engine aircraft individuals fly out of community airports primarily for recreation and instruction. The government considers those planes too light and too slow to cause major damage, although it does restrict those planes from flying above high-profile events such as the Olympics, the Super Bowl and national political conventions.

Small planes are receiving new scrutiny after Joseph Stack deliberately flew his four-seat, piston-engine plane into a Texas office building last week, killing himself and a worker in the building, which suffered extensive damage.

The TSA plans to review the damage to determine whether it should consider new security measures.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said the crash shows private planes must be regulated. "It was horrific," said Rockefeller, Congress' leading advocate for imposing security rules on private flights. "It just shows what one person can do."

The overall reaction from Congress has been relative silence. Few lawmakers have made public statements or called for hearings into the Texas crash. Several experts said in interviews that the death toll shows the limited harm a small plane can cause.

"To me, it's just a risk you're going to have to accept," aviation-security consultant Rich Roth said. "There's nothing we could really do short of saying you guys can't fly planes."

Douglas Laird, another security expert, agreed. "You can do about as much damage with that plane as you could with an SUV loaded with fuel," he said. "I can't get agitated about it."

Roth said the dramatic TV footage of flames and heavy smoke billowing out of the seven-story office building in Austin could inspire copycats: "Unfortunately, I think every terrorist out there is looking at this and thinking, That looks kind of neat."

The Austin crash has mobilized private-aviation groups, which have been influential in countering TSA efforts to impose security rules on private jets.

The 400,000-member Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) said on its website that as soon as reports of the plane crash were broadcast, it got in touch with TSA officials to "provide detailed information" about private aviation "and maintain reason."

"AOPA is working to ensure there are no new regulations as a result of the incident," the organization said.

Ed Bolen, CEO of the National Business Aviation Association, said private-aviation groups have launched their own security initiatives aimed at spotting suspicious activity at small airports and suspicious purchases of private airplanes.

The crash last week doesn't suggest new rules are needed, Bolen said. "I think this has a lot to do with a troubled individual," he said. "I don't think it's a reflection of the industry."

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TSA to roll Austin plane crash into terror review
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY



The Transportation Security Administration will review the fiery crash of a small plane into an IRS office building and use that information to shape future anti-terrorism regulations for the nation's 220,000 private airplanes.

The review is the first in which the TSA has studied a crash involving a private plane. It comes as the agency undertakes a controversial plan to regulate private jets, which currently don't face TSA security requirements such as passenger screening.

PRIVATE JETS: TSA struggles to regulate personal aircraft

IN AUSTIN: Plane crash an echo of terrorism

TSA Assistant Administrator John Sammon said the agency is hiring an aviation expert to study reports by the FBI and other agencies on the Feb. 18 crash in Austin that killed two and extensively damaged a seven-story building.

"We've commissioned folks to do a follow-up study as the results are being released to see what impacts it would have on our future decision-making," Sammon said. The analyst, who has not been named, will study the cause and extent of damage, including issues such as how the building's structure and composition affected the fire.

Sammon said the review would provide valuable information to help the TSA understand how much damage and how many deaths could be caused by a small plane flown into an office building.

"It may simply be a confirmation that for very small planes you're not going to see a lot of casualties. Or there may be something we're unaware of," Sammon said.

He said it is too soon to tell what rules, if any, may be changed as a result of the review. The TSA has never previously sought to regulate small private planes, and in the past has focused on 15,000 larger and faster private jets that it said in a report "could be used effectively to commit a terrorist act."

A 2008 TSA proposal, widely opposed by businesses and aviation groups, seeks to require private-jet passengers to be checked against watch lists. It also aims to require jet operators to keep weapons, including pocket knives, off their planes, and to force 315 airports used only by private planes to enact security plans.

Smaller planes haven't received much attention from anti-terror officials because the damage they can cause is generally much less than a large commercial airliner, which can carry several thousand gallons of fuel and reach speeds of over 500 mph. As of December 2008, there were 7,274 commercial and cargo planes operated by U.S. air carriers.

The pilot in last week's incident, Joseph Stack, 53, appears to have rigged his small Piper Dakota plane with extra fuel in order to do more damage. Stack, a software engineer disgruntled over tax problems with the IRS, may have had a 55-gallon drum of fuel in the four-seat, single-engine plane when he crashed into the building, said Capt. Jeff Solomon, Austin's acting fire marshal.



TSA planning to inspect shops that repair jets
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Thousands of airplane maintenance shops in the U.S. and abroad would get increased scrutiny to make sure they are not easy prey for terrorists looking to sabotage U.S. jets during routine repairs, a government proposal says.

Some experts and lawmakers have warned for years about potential terrorist saboteurs infiltrating airplane repair shops, and have urged security oversight. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says the greatest danger is posed by repair shops that are on or next to airports because a terrorist could take control of an airplane.

A TSA regulation proposed Monday would for the first time enable the agency to inspect airplane repair shops. If the TSA found a problematic repair shop, the agency would tell the Federal Aviation Administration to suspend the shop's operating license.

TSA Assistant Administrator Lee Kair said the new requirement "guards against the potential threat of an aircraft being destroyed or used as a weapon." The agency is soliciting public comments on the proposal and could finalize it later this year.

Airplanes ranging from small recreational planes to wide-body jets are repaired at more than 4,200 shops across the U.S. as well as at 700 shops abroad, in countries such as France, Germany, Singapore, Egypt and Jordan.

The shops include small operations that fix seat cushions and massive complexes that overhaul engines.

Some industry officials say lawmakers have overstated the potential threat posed by repair shops, noting that shops must be inspected and licensed by the FAA to work on U.S.-based planes.