Private jet companies and their lobbyists are fuming over new rules that could subject some of their well-heeled passengers to security reviews. But don’t worry, private jet-setters still wouldn’t have to go through a metal detector or suffer the indignity of a buzz wand if the rules go through.
Associated Press
Is this the fate of Richistan passport holders, too?
The Department of Homeland Security has proposed background checks on pilots and checking passenger names against terrorist watch lists. Operators of international private-plane flights to and from the U.S. would be required to electronically provide full advance lists of passengers and crew an hour before departure. There also would be some limits on what people can take on board.
The new rules would cover planes weighing more than 12,500 pounds, which would include most jets.
The measures are aimed at addressing what some see as a gaping hole in national security–private planes don’t have anywhere near the same security standards as commercial planes.
“Increasingly, we have to look at general aviation as a threat vector, not because of a specific threat, but simply because the difference between security in commercial aviation and security in general aviation has grown and that difference creates a vulnerability,” Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff said last fall.
Yet the National Business Aviation Association–the lobbying group for the private jet industry–says the rules are “overly broad,” expensive and cumbersome. It also says that checking passenger names against the terrorist list could be an intrusion of privacy and that the information won’t be secure.
“I don’t think there’s a clear, demonstrated ability to secure this data,” Douglas Carr, vice president of the NBAA, told the New York Times.
Companies that use jets add that if flight information leaks out, their secret business plans and the stealthy movement of their executives could get out.
The real issue here is time and privacy. People take private jets for two reasons: to save time and the hassle of airport screening and delays, and to be able to travel, at any time, without the public knowing where they are going.
These rules would impinge on both. But would they ruin the industry or (far worse) make the experience of flying private class as bad as flying commercial? Hardly.
I would file this one under “small price to pay.” The wealthy and corporate fliers can accept a quick background check and limits on what they can take aboard for the sake of national security. Besides, many companies and private fliers have staff that could handle the checks and clearances quickly.
At a time of shared sacrifice, it seems to me that submitting to a quick computer check and cargo check is a reasonable request.
Then again, I don’t own a jet. What do you think readers?
By Robert Frank
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