Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
Target: Terrorism: Pilots Using Visual Flight Rules Still Grounded if Plane Near Major Airport in Big City
Aired October 04, 2001 - 08:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Nearly all the restrictions on aviation imposed by the FAA in the wake of the September 11th attacks are now lifted, with one notable exception. Pilots who are using so- called visual flight rules, meaning they don't operate in bad weather, are still grounded if their plane happens to be near a major airport in a big city. More than 40,000 small planes that are not equipped to fly on instrument flight rules, or the pilots aren't, are stranded on the ground, leaving many small plane pilots and the small operations (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and the like in the lurch.
To talk more about this catch-22 situation, we turn to Phil Boyer, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Mr. Boyer, good to have you with us.
PHIL BOYER, AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION: Well, good to be here, Miles.
And so exciting of course for those of us who live in the Washington area, to see the opening at National Airport, but at the same time, as you said, to be very discouraged that we have some 282 airports in those big city areas that are surrounded by a 20 to 30 mile circle that cannot fly on visual flight rules.
O'BRIEN: Let's try explain this to the uninitiated. Essentially, the big city airports, there is a specific veil, if you will, which limits this visual flight rules type flight. What happens is the veil also blankets over a lot of smaller airports. What is the intended idea, as best you see it, from the federal government's perspective?
BOYER: Well, this airspace was set up, primarily not just for our national security but set up for keeping the smaller planes, the business flights, the personal flights, the aerial operators, aerial surveys, away from the major hub airport, mainly for air traffic purposes. Many of our members who fly small planes for business and pleasure would not want to come to National or Dulles in the Washington area, or would not want to go to Hartsfield, where you live and fly, but would rather go to the many surrounding general aviation airports that are within a distance of a major metropolitan area.
And people don't realize that 90 percent of all flying is under visual flight rules. O'BRIEN: All right, but let's play devil's advocate here for a moment. Given all the concerns after the September 11th attack, the fact that it is known that the alleged hijackers received flight training on small aircrafts in order to be able to perhaps guide those planes into those buildings, there is some, clearly, some obviously concern about those flights and about what they may portend. How do you respond to that?
BOYER: Well, we have been very concerned about that, in the first week, the second week, but we have seen an opening of our airspace, as we said earlier, to many types of operations. For instance, in these same areas now, in the class-b airspace around these 30 big cities, except for two exceptions, you can give flight training, and not only that, as of last Friday, you can allow a student, someone with maybe eight to 12 hours to take the plane up at that airport on their own.
And yet at the same time, the flight instructor, the licensed pilot could not do the same thing with the airplane, and so what many pilots are asking, is, well, if these rules have been relaxed, why in the world is the plane that I may use for business, or for aerial application or for aerial surveys or whatever, why can't I use my airplane?
O'BRIEN: I'm sure a lot of people in the audience probably are not feeling too sorry for people who have the wherewithal to buy small aircraft, but how much of a hardship is this really, given the times?
BOYER: Well, don't forget, that many people use their small aircraft just like a car. As a matter of fact, today's typical air plane is about 34 years old, and has the price, the average price, of about the SUV or a car. They are used very heavily for business traveling in and around three state areas, et cetera, are an alternative to airline travel, and this is putting not only those people who own the planes, but think for a moment about the whole infrastructure of businesses that support them, the people who fuel them, maintain them, the flight schools, and in 282 airports, we are looking at a significant layoff of people and economic disincentives.
O'BRIEN: All right, Phil Boyer, the president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association who will be,lobbying Congress today to try to get those VFR pilots back in the air in those 30 major metropolitan areas. Thanks for being with us this morning.
BOYER: Thanks, Miles.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
