DeLauter selling hard and everybody’s buying it.

Well, DeLauter is selling hard and it seems everybody’s buying it.  You see and/or hear him in Aviation International News, on the NPR, etc. telling everybody how well the NPRM process worked, that the TSA listened and has revamped, or is revamping, the Large Aircraft Security Program (LASP).

But every article I see, every quote I hear has all these qualifiers…  “likely to exempt…”, “could prove difficult to accomplish…”, “may be limited…”

The fact is, we haven’t seen the SNPRM yet and have no idea what’s in it.  The fact is there are three internal reports from the DHS and TSA that state General Aviation, to quote one of them, is a “hypothetical threat” to national security.  The facts are there are much easier targets to hit than GA, the New York subway system for example.

The kinder, gentler offering of LASP claims that all piston aircraft are exempt.  But says nothing about what happens when they might want to change that.  DeLauter says that only the pilots of mid-size jets, whatever that is, will have to go through a vetting process to earn “trusted pilot” credentials.  They got trusted when the FAA issued their certificates, you’ll recall the 9/11 terrorists told their instructors they weren’t interested in learning how to land and were not certificated pilots.  The TSA is attempting to usurp 91.3 and regulate who can be Pilot-in-Command, where is that in their charter?

And the part I like best of all, the disclaimer at the end, “This would require each air carrier airport to accept the TSA pilot vetting process, and that could prove difficult to accomplish.”  So, the TSA has the authority to tell each and every airport what type of screening passengers will have to go through, to control to a certain extent who has access to the SIDA and how they get there, yet they can’t tell an airport FSD (Federal Security Director) that a pilot, with credentials, can walk out to his airplane.  So sorry, we tried.

This isn’t about, although it started there, restricted access to flight by the federal government; this is about loss of freedom for no reason.  Remember what Franklin said;  “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”