You're Not Going To Like This.....

ANN has learned that a small number (so far) of our elected officials are looking at additional security measures that may affect pilots all over the US. New security initiatives are being designed to "register, finger-print and conduct background checks" on a number of persons performing as "Primary Transportation Personnel."

Mind you, for the moment, all this is rumor... but rumors we've gotten from uncommonly good sources (who have been unerringly accurate, in the past) and who have promised more detail as soon as it develops. The basis for the current concern is an extensive registration program that would involve pilots, truckers driving rigs of a certain weight and "criticality", as well as captains of watercraft using major/sensitive ports of call.

If approved, all such personnel would be subject to criminal background checks, fingerprinting and registered -- a process that our sources say will have to be paid for by those subjected to the process... in other words... YOU.

While PTP's of watercraft and groundcraft will be qualified based on the size/weight or use of their vehicles, we understand that no such distinction will be made for aircraft and that every pilot of any aircraft is considered fair game. The proposal is being floated in certain areas of Congress where it may or may not be taken seriously if it gains some traction from more powerful elected officials.

We'll keep you apprised as soon as we get more information, but since we believe that "forewarned, is forearmed," it seemed appropriate to pass this along. We might suggest that you start writing your own elected officials to let them know that such indiscriminate and burdensome controls are both unwarranted, intensely restrictive, and unwelcome by a population that has demonstrated NO need for such attention.

FMI: www.senate.gov, www.house.gov