You can feel the love…

TSA Plans to Produce Revamped Security Proposal by Year-end

October 24, 2011

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials have told NBAA that they hope to issue a new proposed business aircraft security program by the end of this year. The new proposal, which is expected to be markedly different from the Large Aircraft Security Program (LASP) offered several years ago, will need to be reviewed and approved by the Department of Homeland Security and Office of Management and Budget before being published for public comment.

“TSA heard our concerns about the most egregious elements of the original LASP proposal,” said Doug Carr, NBAA’s vice president for safety, security & regulation. Those provisions included the aircraft weight threshold, prohibited items list, and the requirements for third-party auditors and armed security guards onboard business airplanes. Even the name of the new security proposal is expected to be different, no longer including the word “large,” which was a misnomer anyway.

TSA has included a “trusted pilot” element in all of its other security programs, and Carr expects it to be part of the new proposal as well. Carr also believes that the new proposal will reflect more of a risk-based approach to security, since TSA Administrator John Pistole, in an effort to evolve his agency into a high-performance counterterrorism organization, has announced plans to reorganize TSA so it can adopt a more intelligence-driven, risk-based approach to security.

Besides having received input from NBAA Staff, business aircraft operators (including NBAA’s Security Council) have helped TSA officials re-craft the business aviation security proposal, said Doug Hofsass, TSA’s deputy assistant administrator for Transportation Sector Network Management, during a well-attended security session at the recent NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention. “This rule is going to make a lot more sense, and it’s really good security,” he declared.

Wow, maybe the NBAA and the TSA should get a room, what with all the mutual admiration?

This is a bad idea, period.  No matter what it’s called.  The DHS and TSA’s own studies have already covered the limited utility of GA in any terrorist threat.  There are already programs to cover Part 135.  There is no need for this.

But, it’s a great segway into the rest of aviation. 

Oh no, the TSA would never do that… then you better read that article on the “road warriors” in Tennessee again.  I’m telling you the alphabet soup is selling us out, compromise and declare victory will not get you the freedom to fly your airplane like you do now.  If you want that to continue, you better join the fight.