Aviation Security Theatre in Washington D.C. - part 1
Bruce Shneier, the crypto and security author and expert, has coined the term security theatre for the type of thing that looks like it’s making us safer but is really for show. “All hat and no cattle” as they say in Texas.
Security theatre describes the ADIZ and FRZ around Washington D.C. that went into effect a year or two after 9/11. I’ll describe what these are for the non-aviation people reading, then I’ll tell you why they’re a bad idea.
The short version is this is a type of limited-access airspace, but one that only affects planes that have never been used by terrorists and are very unlikely to be used by terrorists. The ADIZ is bad since it wastes money, hurts people’s livelihoods, and most importantly uses scarce time by security and air traffic professionals that could be used more wisely. It can even impair flight safety in some cases.
For a very long time - decades at least - there has been some prohibited airpsace over parts of Washington DC. This has been over the White House, Congress, and the Vice President’s house. When the President travels, the location he’s visiting would have a 5 mile restricted area over it. Sometime [[when]] after 9/11, the various security agencies like the military and the Secret Service decided that this wasn’t enough. They told the [FAA] to put in an ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone) around the greater Washington DC area and a TFR (Temporary Flight Restricted) zone directly over Washington. And they also put a 30 mile zone (30 nauticle mile or about 35 statue or regular miles) around President Bush when he travels. Later, the TFR was change to the current FRZ (Flight Restricted Zone) when it became obvious that it wasn’t very temporary.
In addition to some regular categories of airspace around different levels of airports, there are a couple other types that are important for this discussion. Prohibited airspace is where no flights except for specifically authorized aircraft (often military) are allowed. Flight in restricted airspace is sometimes allowed and sometimes not - the pilot has to check with a controller. There are some other types, like Warning, and TFR ( Temporary Flight Restrictions). The former is offshore, and the latter is restricted airspace, but not permanent. Pilots are groaning here since I’m greatly oversimplifying this. But I’m trying to avoid making this a flying lesson.
An ADIZ is different, it’s an “Air Defense Identification Zone” and normally defines the border of a country’s airspace. Over 60 years ago during WWII, there were some ADIZ-like limits around some cities for a short while, but the ADIZ has not been used except for the country’s border since. All the rules and procedures that pilots and controllers are trained for with an ADIZ have to do with the border.
This new ADIZ that was defined only around Washington D.C. allowed limited flights in the ADIZ, but at the cost of some additional filing of flight plans, and some restrictions on what could be done. Unfortunately, the rules weren’t clear. Controllers and pilots read the notice when it came out and it was obvious that it wasn’t written with the usual process that the FAA applies. Many of us had differing interpretations that were all reasonable. Different controllers would expect pilots to do different things or make different radio calls. Since then, the controllers and the local pilots, with some help from the FAA were able to clarify the procedures and those have been codified in more recent revisions of the rules.
The overhead of flying in the ADIZ, the confusion with the unclear notice, and the restrictions meant that many people stopped flying. Some who moved to airports outside the ADIZ and, and as a result, flew less. The effect was that several businesses failed, others suffered, and the general aviation air traffic that is a driver for local commerce dried up. It’s taken years to come back.
There was also a new FRZ (Flight Restricted Zone) that started out as a TFR. It is a roughly circular area directly over Washington DC in the middle of the ADIZ. Even more limitations on flight are put in place there. All pilots must have a background check and be issued a special code that they can use over the radio. This is a new type of airspace not known before.
The west edge of the FRZ was originally drawn on an “isogonic line” that references a uniform compass variation. (The compass points to the magnetic pole, not the actual pole. This line of magnetic variation charts the difference in direction. It has moved over time since as the magnetic variation drifts.) This is not a feature on the ground, nor is it a feature that can be navigated. It is an abstract line that only appears on the chart. A flying student must be able to read an aviation chart and understand items like isogonic lines correctly before their first cross country training flight long before they’re a certificated pilot. So, it’s clear from this that the people who originally put the FRZ and ADIZ in place knew less about aviation than a flight student does.
So part of the reason this is bad is it had a bad effect on the economy. It’s also a set of non-standard rules in a very standardized environment. More coming…
(See part two.)