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San Diego International is the newest airport to pilot the all electronic boarding pass system. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Continental Airlines now offer this service at 18 airports and is expanding quickly. When you purchase your ticket, you receive an e-mail containing a two dimensional bar code, which TSA will scan at the checkpoint prior to screening. This not only saves paper, but expedites long lines, and improves customer service.
Congressional representative Charlie Dent (R-PA) has introduced a bill on June 26th, the General Aviation Security Enhancement Act of 2009 that would require the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to work with the general aviation community to modify their absurd Large Aircraft Security Program (LASP). In October of last year, the TSA had GA operators in a frenzy over their proposed regulations requiring aircraft weighing over 12,500 pounds to be treated as if they were commercial airliners. The regulations would include a criminal history background check for required crew, matching passengers to TSA no-fly and watch lists, screening passengers and baggage for weapons or banned items, and paying for biennial audits.
The Acting Administrator for the TSA, Gale Rossides, has released a new security directive that will override SD-08F. Effective on June 1st, security directive 08G (SD-08G) will allow transient pilots to come and go freely without a costly background check or the need to obtain an airport badge. The only catch is that the flight crew must remain in the vicinity of their aircraft unless under escort by a badged employee. Ken Bertucci, FBO owner, says “I’m thankful that the aviation community has an organization such as AOPA to help fight for general aviation. It would be difficult to hire additional personnel to obtain transient customer information, escort them to our airport’s training center for a two hour long AOA knowledge test (required for a badge), and finally to the airport security department for fingerprinting.” Fortunately, SD-08G will not adversely affect many airports, because they already have a badge system in place and FBO employees escort flight crews accordingly. The next time the TSA creates a security directive, I would suggest a period of time to allow public criticism before passing such absurd regulations.
If you are a general aviation pilot and have not heard of the TSA’s (Transportation Security Administration) newest security directive, SD-08F, then I would advise you to familiarize yourself with it before June 1st, 2009. Starting on that day, all GA pilots based at airports where there is air carrier service must undergo a security threat assessment through fingerprinting, and receive an airport badge to have unescorted access to the airport operations area (AOA). The directive states that it only targets those who have regular, unescorted access to the AOA or SIDA (Security Identification Display Area) at commercial airports, and not those just stopping in for fuel. The lingering question is what defines regular? Is it based customers, pilots who fly in daily, or weekly?