And speaking of scrambles and violations of airspace, an AP news item appeared tonight about that. A GAO report will be released tomorrow that's critical of oversight of the problem, saying only one agency should take the lead in responding rather than several. Selected excerpts from the article....
Pilots flew into restricted airspace 3,400 times across the country in the three years following the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a congressional report that says the government needs to better coordinate its response to such violations.
The Federal Aviation Administration, the North American Aerospace Defence Command and the Transportation Security Administration are responsible for making sure pilots don't fly where they shouldn't.
Jets have been scrambled more than 2,000 times since the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001, including several well-publicized incidents during which private planes strayed into the restricted zone over Washington, causing the evacuation of the White House, the Capitol and other government buildings.
The report noted that airspace violations are almost all inadvertent, because a pilot is trying to avoid bad weather or doesn't check for notices of the restrictions, as they're required to do.
Pilots flying private planes are responsible for 88 percent of the violations, and most occur in the eastern United States, where air traffic is heavy and there's a lot of restricted airspace.
Almost half the violations occur around Washington, where pilots aren't allowed to fly in an area of about 2,000 square miles unless they have a special identifying signal and maintain radio contact with the FAA.
