They're at it again. My cursory reading and limited knowledge base leads me to the conclusion that the TSA and DHS are fixing to start harassing large corporate jets and potentially all charter flights for every U.S. and Canadian (at least the teams that play us) professional and some college sports teams who fly charters.

Screening, no-fly lists, background checks, the whole package. And, of course, audits, inspections, and Kangaroo Court fines for non-compliance.

I wonder if Pacman Jones will be able to fly on the Dallas Cowboys' team jet?

If any FTers are direct stakeholders or if they know anyone who is, now is the time to lobby through professional groups and to formally comment.

Lint To TSA Announcement

Link To Proposed Rule

The rule would apply to planes exceeding 12,500 pounds MTOW. How big is the smallest plane that can avoid such a rule? I'm guessing not very large.

General Aviation has a very powerful lobby. Hopefully they will be able to squash this. I don't use GA myself, but would hate to see such an expansion of TSA's sphere of influence.

Checking GA passengers against the no-fly/selectee lists is asinine (and the press release even idiotically claims that selectees should not be allowed to fly at all) and nothing but a means to create more checkpoint/dragnets for whomever TSA doesn't like this week.

The proposed rule would ensnare much of the private charter fleet, as just about anything jet powered which carries more than 6 people is either approaching or exceeding 12,5 MTOW.

Let's see if the industry trade groups and AOPA get their balls in gear and fight back.

I'd say 'good luck' to the TSA if they want to screen me before I board my own 12,5+ owned and operated private aircraft. What's next, a WTMD before I enter my own home?

The VLJs which are coming to market, and will make up the bulk of the air taxi fleet and high-powered private aircraft will escape the restrictions - but for how long?

The original Lear Jet (model 23) was designed to sneak in just under the 12,500lb limit. Pretty much every other corporate jet except for the new Very Light Jets exceeds it. So do the larger turboprops like the Kingair 300.

TSA needs to continually invent threats to justify their existence.

This is the most disgusting TSA plan I've ever heard of.

Americans flying in private aircraft are being told they must in essence, get permission from the government first. Read around pages 30-34...

The radio talk show host and private pilot Neal Boortz once wrote about this possibly coming, and how he hosted folks from Russia who were amazed at the ability to get in his plane and go where he wanted whenever. And how that type of soviet mentality is on its way here.

I miss my country.

I plan on commenting in the docket, but then I'll probably be on a list.

This is just awful! I don�t care how large a GA aircraft is, this will be the camel�s nose under the tent. AOPA and NBAA are all over this, and rightly so.

You know who I think is pushing this via back channels? The clowns at the Air Transport Association.

The government won't be happy until they control all movement of people in this country.

And it is correct that ATA supports restrictions on private aircraft.

Perhaps...especially after their failed 'fat cat' PR campaign. Making private jet users appear as rich, elitist fat cats didn't work, so now they'll turn them into potential terrorists.

The TSA needed studies to realize this? What's next? Studies to show that discharging a firearm in the direction of a person can result in injuries?
Hasn't the TSA been blaming the airlines for the mess caused by the no fly list?

Notice that anyone that regularly gets flagged with SSSS will not be able to fly on private aircraft w/o TSA permission. Every time.

Both the AOPA and the NBAA have been very active on this issue (Moreso the NBAA).

What's next? With all the car bombings going on the world, will I have to call the TSA before I give my neighbor a ride to the supermarket.

So, If my company wants to fly its own employees to a business meeting, it would have to get TSA's permission to do so? There goes another one of our freedoms.

This won't past. Too many powerful people fly private and not commercial. Like most of our elected officials and the people that support them.

Well, I haven't seen Neal Boortz screaming about this yet. And don't worry, the powerful and the anointed will still be able to fly GA. It's the rest of us that will get bent over.

TSA cant do its job right now and it wants to creep its mission. give me a break especially after the latest black eye

Oh this is gonna cause real problems in the healthcare industry, especially fixed wing medical transport and possibly helicopter EMS as well as many of the popular helicopters approach that weight. I have a suspicion that CAMTS ( http://www.camts.org/ ), and the other air medical transport associations will definately be jumping on this, and making efforts to block it. I sent this to our CEO (who in a former life was a SWA pilot) and is comments start with YGTBFKM, and went downhill from there as the fixed wing(King Air 90 - twin engine turboprop) we use is just over that MTOW, especially with a Neonate Sled Isolete, and medical air and oxygen cylinders.


I would really like to see TSA to delay a medical crew with a patient or a organ transplant team and the patient is greatly harmed, dies or the organs go bad because they were restrictied from moving because there is more then 3 oz of ice in a cooler or some other BS. Them doing something like this would result in lawsuits so big(yes i know you cant sue the govt w/o its permission, but you can its agents) it will make hawley butt pucker removing the fabric from his chair.

Im sorry if I have a patient that is my care(even more so for a critical one like one on a ventilator with multiple medications running) and TSA does anything except for wave me through theres going to be heLL to pay in more ways then TSA can count. BTW TSA theres a medical version of the NFL and you dont want to be on it.

Someone needs to sabotage this idea asap.

Not only that, I question the study as biased (regardless of their incompetence) simply because they have a dog in the fight. That's like GM saying they have the safest cars in the world based on their own studies.