Access Control
& Security Systems

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has announced plans to institute a 1-800 hotline for private pilots to report suspicious or unusual behavior. The idea for the hot line came from a program to protect small airports developed with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association - a trade group representing private pilots.

Warren Morningstar, spokesman for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, said Wednesday the airport watch program isn't intended to mimic the Justice Department's proposed Operation TIPS - Terrorism Information and Prevention System - that would encourage Americans to look out for suspicious activity and report anything unusual.

"We are not encouraging pilots to be vigilantes in any way, shape or form," Warren Morningstar, spokesperson for the association told The Associated Press. "It's a neighborhood watch program.''

Most small airports don't have high fences, metal detectors or baggage screeners, and most private pilots don't have to file flight plans with the Federal Aviation Administration.

Weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, thousands of crop-dusters and other small aircraft were grounded because the planes could be used in an airborne chemical or biological attack.

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