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CNN Live Sunday
New Safety Measures May Put Historic Airport Out of Business
Aired February 09, 2003 - 18:47 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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The federal government has bumped up the nation's terrorist threat level to orange, meaning there is a high danger of further attacks. As part of the plan to keep things safe, extensive flight restrictions will go into effect tomorrow morning around the nation's capital but those new regulations could spell the end for one historic airport.
Kathleen Koch has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There will be TSA representatives here to check your pilot credentials, screen your passengers, your luggage, and your airport.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Restrictions are nothing new for College Park Airport, just seven and a half miles from the White House. Since 9/11 its pilots have had to be fingerprinted, get background checks, file detailed pre-approved flight plans. Outside pilots were forbidden to land there so the airport is struggling.
LEE SCHIEK, MGR., COLLEGE PARK AIRPORT: Up until today we've lost 92 percent of our airport activity.
KOCH: Now because of the higher terrorism alert, not only is more of Washington's airspace off limits, but there will be strict checks for close in airports like those mandated in Salt Lake City during the Olympics, every plane, passenger, and their bags searched. Incoming planes will have to stop and be searched first at an airport 35 miles away. Flying will be limited to between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which means that basically during the week there won't be any flying for people who work.
PAUL ESSEX, PILOT I'm very frustrated by them. I think most of the pilots in the area fell that they don't do anything to really enhance security at all.
KOCH (on camera): One of the toughest things for pilots about the new restrictions is no one knows when or if they'll end.
(voice-over): One of the airport's remaining 35 pilots has already to leave. More will likely follow.
SCHIEK: And they'll probably decide to drive further to fly freer.
KOCH: Unfortunate because College Park is also a historic landmark, the oldest continually operating airport in the world. Wilbur Wright taught the first American military pilots to fly here in 1909.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a real thrill to be able to walk around and operate in this very same space that they operated out of. That's America. That's history.
KOCH: History now threatened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We destroy history every day. We tear buildings down. We build on park land, battlefields. We're doing it every day. It would just be one more piece of history that disappears.
KOCH: Kathleen Koch CNN, College Park, Maryland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
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Aired February 9, 2003 - 18:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The federal government has bumped up the nation's terrorist threat level to orange, meaning there is a high danger of further attacks. As part of the plan to keep things safe, extensive flight restrictions will go into effect tomorrow morning around the nation's capital but those new regulations could spell the end for one historic airport.
Kathleen Koch has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There will be TSA representatives here to check your pilot credentials, screen your passengers, your luggage, and your airport.
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Restrictions are nothing new for College Park Airport, just seven and a half miles from the White House. Since 9/11 its pilots have had to be fingerprinted, get background checks, file detailed pre-approved flight plans. Outside pilots were forbidden to land there so the airport is struggling.
LEE SCHIEK, MGR., COLLEGE PARK AIRPORT: Up until today we've lost 92 percent of our airport activity.
KOCH: Now because of the higher terrorism alert, not only is more of Washington's airspace off limits, but there will be strict checks for close in airports like those mandated in Salt Lake City during the Olympics, every plane, passenger, and their bags searched. Incoming planes will have to stop and be searched first at an airport 35 miles away. Flying will be limited to between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which means that basically during the week there won't be any flying for people who work.
PAUL ESSEX, PILOT I'm very frustrated by them. I think most of the pilots in the area fell that they don't do anything to really enhance security at all.
KOCH (on camera): One of the toughest things for pilots about the new restrictions is no one knows when or if they'll end.
(voice-over): One of the airport's remaining 35 pilots has already to leave. More will likely follow.
SCHIEK: And they'll probably decide to drive further to fly freer.
KOCH: Unfortunate because College Park is also a historic landmark, the oldest continually operating airport in the world. Wilbur Wright taught the first American military pilots to fly here in 1909.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a real thrill to be able to walk around and operate in this very same space that they operated out of. That's America. That's history.
KOCH: History now threatened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We destroy history every day. We tear buildings down. We build on park land, battlefields. We're doing it every day. It would just be one more piece of history that disappears.
KOCH: Kathleen Koch CNN, College Park, Maryland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
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