Spotting - and stopping - dangerous pilots not easy

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Posted 8:50AM on Monday, January 7, 2002

WASHINGTON - Few flight schools have security measures in place that could have averted a Florida teenager who crashed a small plane into a skyscraper. Instructors say even with the heightened awareness after the September attacks, there is little they can do to identify a dangerous would-be pilot, though some are reviewing their procedures anew. "You don't know how an individual's mind is going to work," said Joe Sigligato, owner of Spirit Mountain Aviation, a flight school and charter service in Cody, Wyo. Tampa Police said Charles J. Bishop of Palm Harbor, Fla., was killed in the Saturday evening crash. The 15-year-old was supposed to be checking equipment on the four-seat 2000 Cessna 172R as his flight instructor had requested but instead took off without permission, police said. A Coast Guard helicopter and two military jets pursued him before he finally crashed near the 28th floor of the 42-story Bank of America building. No one inside the building was injured. Terrorism was quickly discounted, but the image of the small plane crashing into the building was a jarring reminder of the September hijackings that sent planes into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It begged the question: What if the renegade pilot was out to harm others? Some flight schools reacted immediately to the new threat. Greg Russell, general manager of CSG Aviation Services in Columbus, Ga., said he plans to convene his employees Monday to review security procedures. "We've already made some drastic changes since September 11 and we'll probably make sure we do a little more now," Russell said. But most said there was little they could do to prevent a similar situation, where instructors have gotten to know and trust a student. "What the flight instructor did was what normally happens," said Warren Morningstar, vice president of communications for the Airline Owners and Pilots Association. "There really was not a security breach. There was an abuse of trust here." An instructor typically accompanies a student for the equipment check during the initial lessons but eventually it is routine at many schools for novice pilots to do the preflight check alone. "Everybody does that. How many times have you heard of people taking them and flying into buildings?" said Andy Surratt, owner of PilotMakers in West Chicago, Ill. Morningstar added that it is unlikely that a small plane, which typically weighs less than a compact car, could cause significant damage. One worker in the Florida building at the time of the crash said the plane's impact was not particularly loud. "It's not a terribly efficient vessel," Morningstar said. "It's not terribly fast. It can't carry very much weight." The Florida incident was a reminder for Bruce Smith, dean of the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences at the University of North Dakota. One of the school's instructors was killed in October 2000 after crashing a twin-engine plane on a runway in an apparent suicide. Smith said his school now requires badges to get to airplanes and is working on requiring a hand or thumb print as well. But even the new security measures aren't certain to prevent a repeat occurrence, he said. "If they really are truly dedicated to doing this and they're secretive about it," Smith said, "there's not a lot you can do."