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Wild flight reveals gaps within FAA --Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted on Sun, Mar. 28, 2004
Wild flight reveals gaps within FAA --Philadelphia Inquirer The agency has little control over erratic pilots, even when they threaten commercial aircraft, experts say. By Chris Gray, Marc Schogol and Keith Herbert Inquirer Staff Writers Ninety minutes into John V. Salamone's bizarre, four-hour flight above the Philadelphia region on Jan. 15, air traffic supervisor David Urban let his frustration show. "I'm sorry if my temper is short," Urban, who works at Philadelphia International Airport, told a colleague in New York, explaining that he had been put on hold for "10 minutes" while seeking help from the New Jersey State Police in identifying Salamone's plane. "Heaven forbid, this should be an emergency," he said. "We have to come up with some better ways of... getting assistance to us with things like this." Salamone, whose blood-alcohol level according to police was 0.15 when he landed, was not a terrorist. But taped conversations from that night and interviews with federal and local officials show that, for nearly four hours, nobody within the Federal Aviation Administration knew who he was or what he was doing there - only that he seemed to be "literally turning" into commercial airplanes, as Urban said that night. And, as Salamone took his Cherokee aircraft on a dangerous round-trip joyride from Pottstown to Monroe Township in Gloucester County, those responsible for protecting Philadelphia's airspace couldn't get him down, either. That's because the FAA has little control and limited enforcement powers over erratic pilots, even if they jeopardize commercial aircraft. Although Salamone flew directly into the airport's flight path, forcing six aircraft to get out of his way, tower officials did not have a complete list of emergency contacts to call for assistance. Although the federal government has pumped billions into airline security after 9/11, nothing prevents the scenario from happening again - a gap that worries aviation security experts. "It just shows you how things haven't changed," said Andrew R. Thomas, an aviation security analyst and author of Aviation Insecurity: The New Challenge of Air Travel. "If this is what homeland security is after hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent, what does this say?" he said. U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) called it a "troubling incident" in a Feb. 2 letter to FAA Administrator Marion C. Blakey, and demanded specifics on how the agency responded. The agency has yet to answer. Federal authorities insisted that proper procedures were followed but provided few details beyond tapes of conversations recorded that night. FAA supervisors in New York contacted North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD. The military agency consulted the FBI and other members of the Domestic Events Network, formed after 9/11, and they decided Salamone's journey was "a non-event," NORAD spokesman Lt. Col. Roberto Garza said. "We didn't need to send the F-15s," Garza said. If Salamone had flown directly at planes, or if the event had occurred over Washington, the response would have been different, Garza said. "You've got the seat of government; you've got our leader," Garza said. "It certainly is a different situation which calls for different responses." • Before taking flight that night, Salamone had been drinking at the Airport Restaurant and Hotel, a tavern across the street from the Pottstown-Limerick Airport, according to those familiar with the events of that night. Salamone - who has a court hearing Tuesday to determine whether he will stand trial on charges of risking a catastrophe and reckless endangerment - has a history of public drunkenness. He pleaded guilty to two DUIs in 1989 and 1990, and paid a $217 fine after being arrested in November for public drunkenness after berating servers at a Limerick restaurant who refused to serve him. Salamone, 44, a concrete contractor from North Coventry, declined to comment. His lawyer would not discuss the case. His father said he didn't know whether Salamone had a drinking problem - talking instead about the volunteer work his son did with AirLifeLine, which flies patients to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh for organ transplants and cancer treatments. "I'm proud of everything he's done, except for this," said John Salamone Sr. of West Norriton. John V. Salamone's plane appeared on the radar screen at Philadelphia International Airport shortly before 6:30 p.m., coming south from Pottstown airport. As Salamone weaved in and out of the approach path, switching altitudes on whim, the two controllers assigned to the landing runways redirected traffic. "Looks like he's doing aerobatics," said the pilot of a Delta Connection flight carrying 24 passengers, after receiving instructions to avoid Salamone's small plane four miles ahead. "Great place to do 'em, isn't it?" the controller answered. Because Salamone meandered along the flight path, seemingly without a specific target, Urban determined that he was a "class B violator." Such pilots skirt the edges of the airspace daily; few create havoc. As soon as Salamone left the approach path, Urban called his supervisors to start the arduous process of getting him down. "The last hour has been a hazard to aviation," Urban told his bosses at the FAA Eastern District office in New York during a conference call. "He came right at a couple guys." Urban also started contacting the local law enforcement to help stop Salamone. But the list was short. The Philadelphia Police Department has two choppers that patrol every day from 4 p.m. to midnight. But the pilots had gone back to their hangar to refuel. After disrupting Philadelphia's flights, Salamone had swung into New Jersey, dropping down toward the Cross Keys airport. Urban asked Monroe Township police to meet Salamone on the landing strip, but Salamone zoomed up in the air. Urban called the New Jersey State Police, but he didn't have the right number for their aviation department and received a recording. When he tried another line, he was placed on hold. "I got no one to answer," he complained on tape. "Someone in the air to identify or do something to this guy would have been much better." State police spokesman Sgt. Frank Emanuele said Urban should have said it was an emergency. "If we're not notified, we can't respond," he said. Urban did not try the Pennsylvania State Police, which has helicopters at every barracks, even as Salamone turned his plane around and headed toward Philadelphia. The FAA did not make Urban or other employees working in the tower that night available for comment. According to Capt. Kenny O'Brien of the Philadelphia Police Aviation unit, other cities have much greater airspace-protection capabilities. Baltimore, for example, has four helicopters that patrol five days and seven nights a week, an official of that city's aviation unit said. Since Salamone's flight, the controllers at the Philadelphia airport have put together an updated list of emergency contacts and direct numbers. Yet O'Brien acknowledged that airborne law enforcement can do only so much. "It's not like we shoot out of our planes," he said. "The only possible deterrent is that we're up there." • About 9:25 p.m., Salamone returned to Philadelphia airspace. He hovered near the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, dropping as low as 100 feet. Urban directed workers to turn on the runway lights, hoping that Salamone would take the hint and land. Instead, he continued to brush near aircraft, coming within a half-mile of a 37-passenger US Airways plane. After he failed to communicate with the tower for three hours, Salamone's garbled voice was heard five minutes later. "Realized I was off course... realized I was in your airspace," Salamone radioed. "How about if I just land and you tell me what I am supposed to do?" One other question: "Am I going to lose my license?" "I don't know anything about that," controller Tom Young said. "How about we just get you on the ground as soon as we can?" A Philadelphia police helicopter was then alerted. It followed Salamone to the Pottstown airport as he headed straight for the Limerick nuclear power plant, coming within a quarter-mile of the cooling towers. Plant personnel had tracked Salamone, and were ready to take emergency measures, including shutting down the reactors, spokesman Craig Nesbit said. But "a plane that small is not likely to do much damage - even if it was loaded with explosives," he said. Salamone continued to have difficulties as he landed. He nearly collided with the police helicopter twice and missed the landing field on his first try. Yet his bravado remained. With one tank empty and only 17 minutes worth of fuel left in the other, Salamone radioed his last words: "Have I smelled like a cheap cigar or what?" • Getting airspace violators out of the air is only part of the problem, FAA officials say. Prosecuting them is another. The FAA revoked the medical certificate that allowed Salamone to have a pilot's license, but breaching airspace carries only civil penalties, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said. The FAA has no prosecutorial powers, so pursuing federal criminal charges would be up to the U.S. Attorney General's Office, he said. But spokesman Rich Manieri said that the office could not press charges against Salamone. Federal law permits criminal prosecution only of pilots of "common carriers" - airplanes that take paying passengers - on charges of drug or alcohol abuse. In addition to filing criminal charges of risking a catastrophe and reckless endangerment, Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. also charged Salamone with drunken driving. A court threw out that charge because Pennsylvania does not have a law against drunken flying. If convicted, Salamone faces up to nine years in prison. Other officials remain concerned not so much with Salamone's possible punishment, but with the flaws that he exposed in the region's aviation system. In his letter to FAA's Blakey, Specter writes that Salamone's flight and the FAA's response "brings into question your agency's ability to adequately respond to a potential aviation threat of this magnitude." Bill Reynolds, a spokesman for Specter, said the FAA promised a response by April. "Until there's an investigation into what happened," Reynolds said, "it's hard to know what happened." Full Article http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/8296557.htm |
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