TSA Scraps Plan To Toughen Private Air Travel Rules : NPR

The Transportation Security Administration is backing off a controversial plan to impose tough new security requirements on private planes and small airports.

In 2008, TSA said that as security on commercial airlines got better, terrorists might see private planes as easier targets.

So, the agency proposed tighter security rules for general aviation — that’s private air travel for business or pleasure. It’s an industry worth 150 billion dollars a year.

The government would have required all passengers to be checked against terrorist watch lists. And about 300 small airports would have needed costly new security programs.

But the general aviation industry sent regulators thousands of complaints. Pilots and airport operators argued that the risk from terrorism is small. Plus, they said, private pilots are already very cautious about who they let on their planes.

Now, the TSA is scrapping major portions of that proposal.

TSA general aviation manager Brian Delauter said the agency now plans to collaborate more with the industry on security.

Mike Mickel is president and CEO of Dominion Aviation, an aviation services and charter operation near Richmond, Va. He praised a move by the federal government to drop a plan for tough new security regulations for general aviation.

“We’re going to be ten times more successful in partnership than … being combative back and forth to each other,” Delauter said.

via TSA Scraps Plan To Toughen Private Air Travel Rules : NPR.