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CT to assess airport security after joyride (plane stolen from DanburyMunicipal Airport)
State to assess airport security after joyride
By Keach Hagey Staff Writer Published June 24 2005 A Bethel man's joyride across state lines in a Cessna allegedly stolen early Wednesday has set off a scramble on both sides of the Connecticut-New York border to address the lack of national security rules for small airports. Gov. M. Jodi Rell responded to the security breach yesterday by ordering the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security to send teams to assess the security at every airport in the state. "Had the person who stole that plane had other intentions, we could have had a very serious situation on our hands," Rell said. "I want to be certain that every precaution is taken and every safeguard is in place at our airports." Philippe Patricio, 20, entered the Danbury Municipal Airport just after it closed Tuesday night, stole a plane and flew it undetected for three hours with two teenage friends before landing, lost and low on fuel, at a darkened Westchester County Airport about 4:15 a.m. Wednesday, officials said. The pilot also was drunk, officials said. It isn't clear whether he broke into the Danbury airport, or whether he had keys to the plane or hotwired it. Westchester officials said Patricio broke into the airport by climbing through a hole in the fence, but Danbury airport said it doesn't know how he got in. Westchester said Patricio had keys to the plane, but Danbury airport and the flight school that owns the plane said this isn't true. Patricio was arrested with a blood alcohol level of 0.15 -- nearly double the legal limit for driving in New York state, said Westchester County Police Commissioner Thomas Belfiore. He was charged with possession of stolen property and reckless endangerment. Patricio was arraigned Wednesday night. He was being held without bail and was due back in court today. Danbury police also were considering charges against Patricio. Patricio's two 16-year-old passengers were not charged or publicly named. Teams of state troopers trained in infrastructure assessment and assigned to the state homeland security office will visit each of Connecticut's many airports, including commercial ones, and report to Commissioner James "Skip" Thomas with recommendations for improving security later this summer, said Sgt. J. Paul Vance, a state police spokesman. Precautions large and small, from "booting" all planes on the ground to high-tech security and surveillance measures, will be evaluated, Vance said. He would not specify which high-tech measures were being considered, but said many of them are already used at larger airports. Funding will come from the department's annual budget, but no one has discussed how to pay for any recommended improvements, Vance said. Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano angrily asserted that post-Sept. 11 security measures in place at the Westchester airport were not duplicated at Danbury, where the single-engine Cessna 172 Skyhawk departed at about 1:30 a.m. A stolen plane, he said, "could possibly be a weapon" and the Cessna "could have crashed into any number of areas," he said. Spano also has asked U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., about airport security. Although the federal Transportation Security Administration provides both rules and funds for security at commercial airports, it provides neither to general aviation airports, said the agency's northeast spokeswoman, Ann Davis. The general aviation category includes all airports that don't have scheduled commercial flights. Danbury is general aviation; Westchester's air traffic is predominately general aviation. No one could say precisely yesterday how many general aviation airports there are in Connecticut, but Vance estimated that there are "dozens." In May 2004, the TSA published a list of guidelines for these airports, but the decision to adopt them is up to the operating authority, which can be a private company, city or county. "The key word is guidelines," Davis said. "They are intended to be voluntary." Airports have flexibility in security operations since they can range in size from a high-traffic cluster of corporate carriers to a landing strip. Each set of guidelines comes with an "airport characteristic measurement tool" that helps airports asses their risk and adjust their security, Davis said. The perimeter of the 250-acre Danbury Municipal Airport is surrounded by a chain-link fence and patrolled by city police, the Danbury airport administrator, Paul Estefan said. Strat Sherman, a member of the Danbury Airport Neighbors Association, said the airport has a history of lax security and accidents. "The fence around the airport is something I could vault over," said Sherman, who is 52. An employee at Arrow Aviation -- the flight school where Patricio took lessons and where officials said he later stole the single-engine, four-seat plane -- said she was not aware of TSA guidelines on how carriers should secure their planes. Her company ties down its aircraft with ropes and locks them with keys, but does not use boots or padlocked chains. "There's not a lot you can do," she said. "They are tied up outside and they have no keys in them. It's like a car. If someone wants to steal it, they can." Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said, "We're looking at a wide range" of regulations to see what violations may have occurred. |
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