AOPA Talks To Senate Committee

AOPA will make a pitch today to a Senate committee suggesting it either scrap the Washington Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) or at least modify it so it is less intrusive on GA operations. Andy Cebula, AOPA’s senior vice president for government and technical affairs, will speak on pilots’ behalf to the Senate Committee on Commerce Science and Transportation in a hearing on GA security. Cebula will tell the committee that the ADIZ, in its current form, doesn’t work as a security measure and actually victimizes pilots who, because of equipment failures, inadvertently violate its strict talk-and-squawk provisions. “Operationally, the ADIZ has been a disaster affecting pilots and slowly smothering the businesses that employ people in the National Capitol Region,” he said in his prepared remarks. Cebula says that security improvements either mandated or voluntarily applied by GA operators, plus security enhancements like missile batteries and the new laser Visual Warning System, offer more palatable and practical ways to ensure security. “AOPA believes it is time to reexamine the ADIZ to determine whether its questionable contribution to security justifies the high costs it has imposed on the industry,” the remarks say.