TSA Three-pronged Attack
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009It appears that the TSA is attempting to strip away the liberties enjoyed by private pilots in the United States via a three-pronged attack. Three separate initiatives have been undertaken by the TSA, each attempting to control and restrict some portion of general aviation.
First is the Large Aircraft Security Program, or LASP. This consists of a set of proposed new rules that are intended to regulate “large” aircraft at airports throughout the US. Currently these rules are in the form of a Notice for Proposed Rule Making, or NPRM. This is the usual process by which new rules and regulations (not laws) are created by a federal government agency. The NPRM is published and time is given for public review and comment. The public review phase of the NPRM closed at the end of Febrouary. The comments were overwhelmingly negative. They included some very detailed analyses by affected companies on the large impact the rules would have economically while also analyzing the claims of improved security (and showing those claims to be mostly unfounded). In March the Aviation Subcommittee of the House of Representatives sounded an overwhelming “no” to the plan, along with the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security. For now we can hope that the LASP in its current form is dead, but we should not be surprised if it is resurrected in some other form later this year.
The second prong is the attempted implementation of something called Operation Playbook. It is believed that the playbook is a set of guidelines internal to the TSA that describe how to currently handle general aviation. Some divisions of the TSA attempted to implement new Operation Playbook guidelines last December by setting up security checkpoints at the entrances to Signature Flight Support at Nashville International Airport, and similar measures were nearly established at Bradley International Airport. Hangar tenants were reportedly subjected to frisking and searching at Ft. Lauderdale Airport. People subjected to this unauthorized screening complained to TSA headquarters (and probably DHS too). The TSA later released a statement declaring that the screenings were “inappropriate”. But clearly there is a desire within the TSA to treat general aviation the same way they treat commercial aviation.
The final prong, and the most insidious of the three, is the implementation of security directive 1542-04-08F, more commonly known as just “8F”. This is an attempt by the TSA to reclassify airport operations areas at any airport with commercial operations to include the entire airport: anywhere an aircraft can go. This significantly broadens the scope of the TSAs powers at these airports to encompass all operations, commercial and private. The TSA is requiring vetting and badging of anyone who wants access to any part of the airport inside the fence. Badges must be paid for and administered by each airport and are unique to one airport. Anyone who is not badged must be escorted on the ramp. The projected implementation for directive 8F is June 1.
In the future we hope to provide detailed descriptions of each of these TSA efforts, along with reasons why they are unworkable, unlawful, and unconstitutional. Watch for them!