Aviation Advocacy Group Sends A Letter To Major News
Organizations
From AOPA...
The media frenzy surrounding the recent New York Times article
about homeland security concerns centered on general aviation has
passed as quickly as it arrived -- a sure sign it wasn't much of a
story after all. Even with AOPA President Phil Boyer appearing on
most of the major network broadcasts to tell our side of the story,
the episode was painful for all of us.
That's because, in several cases, the news media chose to
present the views of self-proclaimed "aviation security expert"
Charles Slepian, an attorney and founder of the Foreseeable Risk
Analysis Center. "Aviation critic" is likely a more accurate
description. Appearing on several national newscasts, Slepian has
consistently played fast and loose with general aviation facts. Too
fast and too loose for AOPA and its members. "We believe everyone
has a right to their opinion, but there's a huge difference between
stating an opinion and presenting something as fact - especially on
the sensitive issue of national security," said AOPA Executive Vice
President of Communications Jeff Myers.
In a letter sent Tuesday to the country's top news
executives, Myers pointed out the many factual flaws
in Slepian's presentations and took the organizations involved to
task for not challenging his highly erroneous statements. "In the
best case, it's really lousy journalism," said Myers. "In the worst
case it's irresponsible fear mongering. And in either case it's
painting a negative picture of GA that's completely inaccurate and
totally undeserved." The letter cited one of AOPA's main concerns
about Slepian's expertise on the state of aviation security: By his
own admission, he has not stepped foot on a general aviation
airport in three years.
In recent appearances on local and national Fox broadcasts and
NBC's Nightly News, Slepian made a stream of outrageous statements
regarding GA. In one case he told viewers "...you can hijack an
airplane from a general aviation airport. And those are the 18,000
airports across the United States in which you can pretty much walk
onto the field and get into the plane, and if you know how to fly -
fly one away." He went on to say that all GA airports are unsecured
and GA pilots keep their airplanes' keys right in the ignition. (He
underscored the keys-in-ignition point when the host challenged him
on it.) Another: Anyone can go to a GA airport, hit a switch and
take off...in a 757.
On Monday (March 14) he
told a national audience that a pilot could put 200 pounds of
fertilizer in a Cessna and create another Oklahoma City situation,
referring to the 5,000-pound bomb in that attack.
"Slepian is perpetrating the GA-equivalent of shouting 'fire' in
a crowded movie theater," said Myers. "His wild statements about GA
are slandering the good name of GA aviation. It's one thing to have
an opinion, however ill formed. It's quite another to have a
national stage on which to share it. We're counting on the news
organizations to guard their own integrity, and our letters to them
are an attempt to help them to do just that." We'll keep you
advised.