Heard in the Hallways: More Scrutiny for General Aviation

Think the FAA’s August decision to shrink and streamline the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) around Washington was a harbinger of a "kinder and gentler" U.S. government view of general aviation? Think again.

Testifying before the Senate Homeland Security Committee Sept. 10, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said that agency plans more stringent requirements on general aviation flights to prevent them from being used to smuggle weapons of mass destruction into the United States.

The feds since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks have focused on heading off such smuggling on commercial airline flights and seaborne shipping. With countermeasures for those modes in place, Chertoff said, it’s time to head off GA as a potential smuggling tool. New requirements, which will start with transoceanic GA flights, will include early reporting of crewmembers and passengers on a flight and expand "ultimately to a process of physical screening of private aircraft" at their departure points abroad.

Effective Aug. 30, the FAA reconfigured the ADIZ around Washington, changing it from what many pilots have described as "Mickey Mouse ears" to a rough circle centered on the DCA VOR.

The original ADIZ was placed around Washington in 2003 in response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and encompassed the Class B airspace of National Airport (KDCA), Dulles International (KIAD), Baltimore-Washington International (KBWI), and Andrews AFB (KADW). The new zone releases 1,800 sq mi of airspace, including much of the Class B space around BWI and IAD.

The change came after lobbying by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. (AOPA) and Helicopter Assn. International. General aviation and commercial pilots had enjoyed relatively unrestricted flying around the region prior to September 11, 2001. A major complaint was that the zone’s irregular shape made it difficult for pilots to identify its boundaries using ground references or radio navigation aids. Rules also required aircraft to maintain radio contact with the Potomac terminal radar approach control center at the zone’s outer reaches.