Zero Tolerance

It drives me batty to read, yet again, about a private plane entering restricted airspace.

Simply put, there is no excuse for a private pilot to venture unwittingly into a no-fly zone in this country. Long before September 11, the Federal Aviation Regulations required all pilots to be fully briefed about all aspects of their flight before departing. Obtaining information about airspace restrictions has become absurdly easy with the growth of the Internet. Even without a computer, all a pilot has to do is call the local Flight Service Station and ask for a standard briefing on the route of flight. The information is not hidden in some obscure vault.

Some pilots will bitch and moan that the changing restrictions are confusing and subject to change, but I can't agree. The information is available (from a live human being if you call the FSS!) and it is the responsibility of the pilot to know it. If you are unsure, you can even call the FSS on the radio when you are in the air.

These high-profile incursions come at a time when the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association is lobbying to have the Washington D.C. Air Defense Identification Zone ("ADIZ") reduced or amended. It's becoming an uphill battle. How can the AOPA argue for a loosening of the airspace when general aviation pilots keep proving that they can't even follow the current regs? It's maddening and it adds momentum to the push to create a New York ADIZ, which would suck royally. I can say that dealing with the Newark and LaGuardia towers has been fairly easy and pleasant for me thus far. Creating an ADIZ would turn the whole situation into a huge mess.

I haven't been very misanthropic lately, but this news definitely brings it all back.