Close-Up Shuttle View Leads To Chat With Feds

The pilot of an Aeronca Champ was intercepted after entering restricted airspace Tuesday around Kennedy Space Center, and flying near the space shuttle Atlantis and its launch pad.

"He came pretty close (to the shuttle)," KSC spokesman George Diller said. "He was within sight of the shuttle launch pad, and you would think that would have set off alarm bells -- that he would have realized he was somewhere he shouldn't be."

The pilot reportedly took off from Fort Pierce, flew up the east Florida coast, and entered restricted airspace near Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station around 11:15 am The decommissioned Titan rocket pad is just a few miles south of KSC's launch pad 39A, where Atlantis is being prepped for launch June 8, according to Florida Today.

Controllers at KSC spotted the green-and-white Champ and summoned a NASA security helicopter, Diller said. By the time the helicopter took off and picked up the plane's radar trail, however, it had exited restricted airspace.

The pilot did contact air traffic controllers at an air field in Daytona Beach. He was instructed to land at Ormond Beach Airport -- which he did, escorted by a sheriff's office helicopter from the Volusia County Sheriff Department.

Deputies met the unidentified pilot at the airport where the aircraft was searched for explosives and drugs but nothing suspicious was found. NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the incident, Diller said. The pilot is being questioned by FBI agents.

The incident has not disrupted the planned launch.

KSC restricted airspace stretches from Oak Hill north of the spaceport, to the midpoint of the Indian River to the west, Port Canaveral to the south and a boundary a few miles east of KSC and the Air Force Station, according to Diller. He said it is well-defined on aeronautical charts, but pilots unfamiliar with the area sometimes stray within the restricted airspace unintentionally.

Pilots have not been allowed within the area since 9/11.

"We rarely have a problem with local pilots. It's usually somebody not familiar with the airspace," Diller said.

Penalties range from fines to license suspension or revocation, he added.

(Chart courtesy of SkyVector.com)

FMI: www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/home/index.html