Moraine Airpark, a privately owned airport wedged between a residential area and the Great Miami River, doesn’t have security lights or cameras, airport Manager George Bockerstette said. A chain-link fence along the airport’s north side separates it from homes and a ballpark.
Pilots are urged to lock up their planes and airport officials say they have a standing request for neighbors to call the police about suspicious activity at night when the airport isn’t staffed, Bockerstette said.
“We’ve never had a problem down here,” he said Monday.
By contrast, Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport has fencing around it and a controlled-access entry gate to restrict after-hours entry, said Terrence G. Slaybaugh, Dayton’s aviation director, who oversees the airport.
Because the Wright Brothers airport handles some air traffic to relieve congestion at Dayton International, the Federal Aviation Administration gives Dayton discretion to spend more money on the smaller airport, Slaybaugh said.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office, which does audits and investigations at the request of Congress, said its staff visited 13 smaller airports around the nation between April 2010 and May 2011. The GAO said 10 of those airports “potential vulnerabilities” that could allow unauthorized access to aircraft or airport grounds and equipment.
The airports reviewed serve only general aviation, which does not include commercial or other scheduled passenger and cargo operations. The agency did not publicly identify the airports it visited.
The GAO released its findings almost 10 years after the 2001 terrorist attacks, which exposed security weaknesses in the nation’s commercial aviation industry.
None of the 10 general aviation airports had lighting along their perimeters, GAO investigators wrote.
The three airports that also supported commercial aviation generally had implemented such security measures as perimeter fencing and lighting, security cameras and, in some cases, on-site law enforcement, the GAO reported.
The GAO report acknowledged that the U.S. Transportation Security Administration does not require general aviation-only airports to implement security measures including fencing, lights and cameras, The TSA issues only guidance recommending these.
Operators of smaller Miami Valley airports said they often lack the money for comprehensive improvements.
Trade organizations for general and business aviation said the GAO’s report was misleading and incomplete.
They said the GAO failed to examine security measures beyond physical barriers and lighting, including post-2001 requirements that pilots be vetted against terrorist watch lists and foreigners undergo background checks before starting flight training.
The GAO also didn’t consider that security needs vary from rural to metropolitan area airports and that the community-like nature of small airports, where pilots and airport managers tend to know each other, makes it easier for them to detect suspicious activities and report them to authorities, the trade groups said.
“In general aviation, you know who’s flying with you, you know who the passengers are, as opposed to large airliners,” said Brian Foley, an industry analyst in Sparta, N.J.
The 400,000-member Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association encourages pilot vigilance through an effort modeled on neighborhood watch programs, association spokesman Chris Dancy said.
“We have been urging pilots since shortly after the attacks in 2001 to look for things out of the ordinary — pilots making unusual modifications to airplanes, people asking questions that just don’t seem quite right,” Dancy said.
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has estimated that it would cost $30 billion just to install chain-link fence around every public-use airport in the country. There are more than 5,000 such airports, the Federal Aviation Administration says.
At the Warren County Airport near Lebanon, a private owner of the aircraft buildings shares operating expenses with the county, which owns the land, runway and taxiways, said Bill Simmons, president of the Warren County Airport Authority Board. The airport works with the FAA to address its requirements, he said.
Warren County Airport owner Bobby Henderson said that, with the county’s help, he is installing chain-link fencing around three sides of the airport and is installing security cameras. The facility is staffed, in part because it is an operating site for Miami Valley Hospital’s Careflight emergency helicopter airlift service, Henderson said.
But the fencing is only enough to keep out wildlife and “casual observers,” Simmons said. “It’s just plain impractical ... .,” Simmons said.
Don Smith, manager of Greene County’s Lewis A. Jackson Regional Airport, declined to discuss specific security provisions at his airport. But, he estimated it would cost at least $1 million to completely encircle it with fencing. The airport works with the TSA to ensure that key security concerns are addressed, he said.
“I have 75 aircraft tenants here. We pretty much know everybody by name, by sight,” Smith said. “If you see somebody strange, you challenge them as to what they’re doing there. Everybody knows whose aircraft is whose.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan @DaytonDailyNews.com.
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