Second Guessers Second Guessed by Reality

Earlier this month the Washington Post reported that TSA had caved in to industry objections and scaled back its plan to regulate the use of General Aviation aircraft (that is, small private airplanes).  The crucial part of that determination was a May 2009 report by the DHS Inspector General which called the security threat from small planes, "limited and mostly hypothetical."  I don't think that Joseph Stack got the message and I'm sure that the IRS employees in Austin are taking comfort in the hypothetical nature of the attack on them yesterday.

All too often our security responses are condemned as "too reactive."  We are always protecting against the last attack and never looking forward enough.  The IG report is an almost tragic example of the opposite trend -- when someone makes the effort to think constructively and proactively about as-yet-unrealized threats they are accused of fear mongering and engaging in "hypotheticals."  Well, the hypothetical became reality yesterday.

One only hopes it is enough to shame the general aviation industry into forgoing its opposition to helpful security measures and to embolden TSA to do the right thing.

Comments

[Bob Neal]

Really? and exactly how do you plan to keep someone who OWNS THEIR OWN PLANE from flying into a building? The regs which were not issued would have done ZERO to prevent what happened. But by all means, let's regulate for the sake of regulating.

[DensityDuck]

Bob: I think the point is that right now, purchasing and operating a GA aircraft is pretty much like buying and driving a car.

And the real thrust of the blog post is not so much GA regulation as it is an example of how "Nobody Would Ever (do something)" is *not* a valid argument against security regulations. On September 10 2001, Nobody Would Ever hijack commercial airliners and use them as kamikaze weapons. On February 17 2010, Nobody Would Ever use a GA aircraft as a suicide weapon. What else is there that Nobody Would Ever do?