Shocker: No Sensitive Material Found

They're baaaaaack! The transcripts of the ADIZ public meetings held January 18 in Washington have been reposted on the FAA's website, after they were removed last month at the request of NORAD.

Seems the military was concerned about the testimony of one private pilot, in particular -- whose day job is flying F-18s for the Navy -- who stated a fairly obvious fact before the committee: that a rogue aircraft could enter the ADIZ legally, and still turn towards the capital with little time to scramble fighters to intercept.

That statement, coming from a military pilot (who was testifying as a civilian), caught NORAD's attention -- and the agency then told the Department of Homeland Security to pull the transcripts and scrub them for any secret or sensitive information. The DHS was also told to redact any public comments that might have compromised security.

The result? Over one month after the transcript was pulled... and nearly three months since the meeting took place... the transcript is back. What's more, nothing harmful to national security was found.

"What a pointless waste of effort," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. "These were public meetings, attended by hundreds of pilots and the news media."

"Pulling the transcripts weeks after the meeting certainly would not have secured any secret information, had there been any," Boyer added. "I feel safer now, don't you?"

Careful, Phil... that's stating the obvious, and look what happened the last time someone did that...

FMI: www.dhs.gov, www.aopa.org, Read the transcripts here and here