The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) has requested that the Department of Homeland Security establish security screening capabilities and gateway operations at Palm Beach County Park Airport to ease the economic impact of shutting down the airport each time President Donald Trump visits his nearby Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
In a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly, AOPA President Mark Baker urged adopting measures to allow limited operations at the general aviation airport during temporary flight restrictions in effect for presidential visits.
Baker added AOPA’s commitment to support operational relief at the airport by disseminating information about the special procedures to local pilots, FBOs, and companies based at the airport, where 250 people are employed full-time and which accounts for an annual community impact of $27 million.
It has been estimated that the operators of Palm Beach County Park Airport — a Palm Beach International Airport reliever field also known as Lantana Airport — lost $30,000 as a result of one three-day weekend visit by Trump to Mar-a-Lago.
Since December 2016, AOPA has made multiple requests to the FAA to create an airspace cutout from the inner core for Lantana Airport, and recently requested a meeting on the matter.
During the first three TFRs associated with Trump’s visits to Mar-a-Lago —located just 5 nm from Lantana Airport — no cutout was authorized.
AOPA has urged Florida’s two senators, Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson, and U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel to request that the TSA establish security screening capabilities and gateway operations at Palm Beach County Park Airport.
While I am a staunch AOPA supporter and I applaud them for trying, I don’t see how the proposed cutout could possibly work. The north side of the cutout leaves insufficient room for a traffic pattern, and I could see numerous and frequent TFR violations if this were to be instituted. In addition, 5 miles is not enough distance to protect the president from a potential airborne attack. A fast GA airplane could cover that distance in not much more than one minute.
I do believe that KLNA is getting a raw deal. Perhaps the best compromise solution is to allow inbound aircraft to obtain a TSA inspection and clearnce at a nearby airport outside the TFR (such as KPHK), and outbound aircraft to obtain the same inspection and clearance at KLNA.
Also, businesses at KLNA that are shut down by the TFR should be reimbursed for their losses. How is it fair for a small business to be forced to lose money in order to protect the president?
I keep thinking about 9/11. It was not an Attack Piper that knocked down any buildings. In fact, a suicidal pilot ran a C172 into the BOFA building in Tampa and it barely penetrated the building, only enough that it didn’t fall to the ground.
So, we ignore the 121/135 guys, and screw GA.
Now we can make the argument that the airports were there LONG before Trump acquired the property, so the airports and pilots are having, shall we say, rights taken without due process… But I’m not an attorney…
The only opinion that matters in this case is the Secret Service. Their job is to protect POTUS. NOTHING else matters.
FAA, DHS, Etc. can only ask the Secret Service for relief.
After eight years of dealing with this issue in the Chicago area, a lot of us are just glad that it’s someone else’s turn.
I hope the TSA, DHS and Secret Service agree with your request.