After All, Washington Has One…
If Washington has one, New York should also have a GA no-fly zone, according to a New Jersey congressman. This proposal would have a much bigger impact on GA. Steven Rothman (D-N.J.) is proposing that GA be banned within 15 nm of New York City. “It is unacceptable that New York City, the site of the greatest terrorist attack in American history, still has not been given the same protection from general aviation aircraft …” Rothman said. Within 15 nm of the center of New York are at least 12 GA airports, including some of the busiest in the country. Teterboro in New Jersey handles thousands of GA flights a year, many of them corporate. It’s seven miles from Manhattan. Since 9/11, only airliners and the military have been allowed within 15 nm of the Washington Monument, with the exception of GA aircraft based at three small airports within the no-fly zone and under severe restrictions.
…Alphabets Blast The Idea
Of course, the alphabets are fit to be tied over Rothman’s suggestion. “Enough is enough,” raged AOPA President Phil Boyer. “What further burden must general aviation bear when it has never been used as a weapon of terror?” Boyer also accused Rothman of using security to camouflage his real agenda of reducing traffic to airports, like Teterboro (in his district). EAA’s Earl Lawrence pressed that “Rep. Rothman’s request would not make any of the citizens in his district, nor in the surrounding New York metro area, any safer, but it would effectively destroy hundreds of jobs and dozens of businesses …” EAA noted that the Department of Homeland Security, the TSA and the FAA have all determined that GA traffic is of little risk to security. According to AOPA, Rothman has long opposed the stream of corporate jets that use Teterboro. Personal issues aside, AOPA’s Boyer added that the TSA, with help from the FAA, Secret Service, Department of Defense and FBI, came up with the current ADIZ restriction over New York and the TSA, which has the responsibility for such matters, should not be overruled by anxious congressmen. “Let them do their job,” he said.
