TSA flooded with opposition to corporate-jets proposal

WASHINGTON -- Private pilots and business groups are assailing an effort to impose the first security rules on corporate jets, sending more than 4,000 protest e-mails to the Transportation Security Administration.

The outpouring, including nearly 1,500 e-mails last week, represents the largest public opposition to an aviation-security proposal since the TSA was formed in 2003. On Monday, the Alaska State Senate urged the TSA to drop the security proposal, calling its cost to plane owners and small airports "exorbitant."

"There's a visceral type of reaction to this," said Andy Cebula, head of government affairs for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, which urged its 415,000 members to protest the TSA effort. "Our members are saying, I'm a good American, I'm not a threat to our country. Why is there a presumption that somehow I'm a threat and I've got to prove myself innocent?"

The TSA has not identified a specific threat involving corporate jets but notes that many are the same size and weight as commercial planes that are tightly regulated. Corporate jets could be used to fly into a building or transport terrorists or lethal materials, the TSA said.

The TSA proposal would regulate 15,000 corporate jets and 315 of the busiest airports that serve private planes. It would not affect more than 150,000 smaller, piston-engine planes or roughly 5,000 small private-use airports.

Passengers on the jets would be checked against terrorist watch lists, just like airline passengers, but would not face physical screening. The jets' flight crews would face criminal-record checks.

Opponents say passenger background checks could cause travel delays and violate privacy, and that securing corporate jets is unnecessary. "It would be the equivalent of regulating the same number of passengers that fit in a minivan," the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wrote the TSA.

The National Business Aviation Association says jet owners could face tens of thousands of dollars in costs to do background checks as well as security audits the TSA is proposing be done on jet operators every two years. "This could harm thousands of small- and midsized companies that rely on an airplane," association spokesman Doug Carr said.