By Calvin Biesecker
General aviation aircraft represent “limited and mostly hypothetical threats to security” and steps that have been taken by airports to improve security related to general aviation “are positive and effective,” says a report released this week by the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General.
The report also says that if “significant regulation” is imposed on the general aviation community then it “would require considerable federal funding.” The report, TSA’s Role in General Aviation Security (OIG-09-69), notes that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) already provides guidelines and other tools for baseline security for aircraft based at general aviation sites. General aviation refers to all flights other than scheduled airline flights and military aviation.
The report was prepared in response to a request from Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection. Jackson Lee requested the report after a local television crew in Houston did a series of stories about how they breached security at several area general aviation airports and were able to access either airfields or aircraft.
“We reviewed the allegations and determined that they were not compelling,” the IG says. The report says that “the reporters were unaware of some passive security and monitoring measures. For example, the airports had instituted security procedures, including 24-hour video surveillance, locking or disabling grounded planes, and controlling fuel access, which the television reporters did not test.”
There are 19,000 general aviation airports and helipads in the United States and general aviation accounts for 77 percent of all flights in the country, the IG says. The report cites previous studies prepared by other government agencies–the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service–that point to a minimal threat from general aviation, in particular the small size of many of the aircraft as being an unlikely platform to carry conventional explosives. The IG also cites another report that says most general aviation aircraft could not do enough damage to a nuclear power plant such that radiation would be released.
The IG notes that TSA’s Office of Intelligence (OI) has identified “potential” threats to general aviation but has also “concluded that most GA aircraft are too light to inflict significant damage, and has not identified specific imminent threats from GA aircraft. OI has also concluded that there is no credible threat of crop-dusting aircraft being used to spread chemical or biological agents.” Still, the IG says that the intelligence office warns that the threat to use general aviation aircraft can’t be ignored.
In addition to visiting the three Houston area general aviation sites, the IG visited other airfields and some major international airports around the United States that also host general aviation aircraft.
TSA did not provide a formal response to the report.