[JYO] AOPA?s Airport Watch ? TSA anti-terrorism hotline goes online Monday

AOPA?s Airport Watch ? TSA anti-terrorism hotline goes online Monday
Call 1-866-GA-SECURE to report suspicious activity

Nov. 26 ? The toll-free number to report suspicious activity at an airport ? 
1-866-GA-SECURE (1-866-427-3287) goes online Monday, December. 2. The 
Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which is funding and operating 
the 24/7 hotline, has partnered with AOPA in providing an easy-to-remember 
national number as part of AOPA?s Airport Watch program to help protect 
national security at our nation?s general aviation airports.
?Airport Watch is designed to work like the highly successful neighborhood 
watch programs used in communities across the country, said AOPA President Phil 
Boyer. ?Who better to know-what's normal and what's suspicious at a local 
airport than the people who spend a lot of time there? We encourage all pilots 
to watch for unusual or suspicious activities and report them.?
The program is much more than a telephone number, however. AOPA has created 
posters and pamphlets to show pilots examples of suspicious activities, steps 
pilots can take to help law enforcement, and sensible precautions for improving 
airport security. The brochure is available online </asn/watchindex.shtml>, and 
will be mailed to the more than 388,000 AOPA member pilots in December. AOPA 
has also produced a training video with several terrorist scenarios acted out. 
Law enforcement officials participated in the production, providing realism for 
the police response to the threats shown on tape.
AOPA had first proposed the idea of Airport Watch and a toll-free number to TSA 
in June.
?Phil came to me and said we have this idea for Airport Watch? and that AOPA 
was willing to invest the money to make it happen in terms of brochures, video 
tapes and promotions, but the one crucial ingredient was a toll-free number 
that would make sense for anyone who actually observed something at an airport 
to call into a central location to do something about it,? said Admiral James 
M. Loy, Under Secretary for Transportation Security and TSA head. ?My 
connection with the Coast Guard allowed me to make that connection for Phil and 
I was able to let him know that the National Response Center was more than 
willing to add AOPA?s Airport Watch to their game plan. So very quickly we were 
able to close the gap between a great idea that Phil had representing the 
community and what we recognized very quickly as being a good contribution to 
airport security around the nation.?
The 1-866-GA-SECURE hotline is staffed 24 hours a day by the Coast Guard?s 
National Response Center. That agency already fields emergency calls for 19 
different federal agencies. AOPA helped the center develop response protocols 
for pilot calls concerning airport security.
Said Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta, ?The Department of 
Transportation and TSA are taking many steps to protect our airports and 
aircraft from terrorists. But I know the government can?t do it all. And I know 
that the security measures that we?re putting in place at big air carrier 
airports just aren?t practical small general aviation airports.
?That?s why I think AOPA?s Airport Watch is such a great idea.?
?AOPA is proud to have taken this proactive position by developing the Airport 
Watch program, and even prouder on behalf of our members to have received the 
endorsement of the very regulators who were trying to determine how to handle 
GA airports,? said Boyer. ?Being part of the solution is certainly better than 
waiting for government actions we may not endorse.?


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