The Transportation Security Administration was scheduled to publish in the Federal Register late last month a proposed set of regulations that, if enacted, will ground every general aviation aircraft with a maximum certified takeoff weight of more than 12,500 pounds. There will be only one way that the nearly 10,000 aircraft operators affected by these rules can receive permission to fly: comply with the new Large Aircraft Security Program (LASP) regulations. Comments on the proposed regulations are due by next month. To view and comment on the proposal, see www.tsa.gov/assets/pdf/nprm_lasp.pdf.
An operator who flies a Cessna Citation CJ2+ with a maximum certified takeoff weight of 12,500 pounds would not need to comply with the proposed new security regulations. One who operates a Citation II with an mtow of 13,500 pounds would be ensnared by a complex array of you’d-better-not-break-’em regulations that will add yet more costs to the operation, complicate every single flight and quite possibly persuade the aircraft’s owner that flying on the airlines isn’t so bad after all.
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