AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2013 - 64

TAKING ACTION

Flying near power plants

“This incident raises several
disturbing issues that demand
the immediate attention of
the Department of Homeland
Security to prevent unnecessarily detaining United States
citizens, or even worse, needlessly causing injuries or fatalities
that would have resulted from
a ‘shoot down’ of the aircraft,”
said AOPA Senior Vice President
Melissa Rudinger. She urged the
DHS to “immediately conduct a
thorough review of all security
programs for similar types of
facilities to ensure that it is clear
on what constitutes a violation
and what is the appropriate
action to be taken.” She also
requested that DHS make it clear
that no one may shoot down an
aircraft outside of the existing
command structure.
The TSA responded that it
takes these matters seriously,
“both in context of aircraft loitering in airspace around critical
infrastructure as well as appropriateness of responses by various organizations at the federal,
state, and local levels.” The agency said it would continue to work
with organizations “by providing
them with education on airspace
matters…. This will allow them
to make informed and effective
decisions on when and how best
to execute a response based on
their specific statutory and/or
legal authorities.”
In its communication to members about the rules for flying
near power plants and other
infrastructure, the Soaring
Society of America has called
on glider pilots to reach out to
on-site security at local power
plants and laboratories: “Open a
dialogue and tell them who you
are and when you may be in their
area.” In addition, airports often
encourage pilots to “fly friendly”
in sensitive areas; the Hartsville
airport has a right traffic pattern
for Runway 3, keeping pilots as
far from the plant as possible.
AOPA continues to press the
TSA, along with the National
Protection and Programs Directorate—which deals with infrastructure protection—to explain
its education efforts; AOPA also
has offered to assist in developing guidance and resources on
general aviation-related issues.
64 | AOPA PILOT February 2013

FLEMING WATCHED the commotion from
the back of a police car. At one point, he said,
he counted 12 law enforcement vehicles at
the airport. Griffin said she counted 17.
Two men, whom Fleming judged by
their uniforms were security personnel at
the nuclear plant, questioned him: Did he
know he was flying over a nuclear plant?
Fleming flies competitions in South
Carolina that take pilots near the Savannah
River Site, a 310-square-mile Department
of Energy industrial complex that handles
nuclear materials in support of national
defense. This large site is marked on sectionals with a notice: “For reasons of national
security pilots are requested to avoid flight
at and below 2,000 feet msl.” Overflight is
not prohibited.
Smaller nuclear facilities such as the
Robinson plant are addressed in a flight data
center (FDC) notam issued following the
September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks: “To
the extent practicable, pilots are strongly
advised to avoid the airspace above, or in
proximity to such sites as power plants….
Pilots should not circle…over these types
of facilities.” Because gliders routinely circle to gain altitude in thermals, the Soaring
Society of America sought a clarification
from the FAA: “That is, circling is a mode
of flight for us and is acceptable at or near
these facilities. The key is to spend only as
much time as needed to gain lift and move
on beyond the facility,” it told members.
Fleming’s circling had been mostly on
the side of the lake opposite the nuclear
plant. The FAA looked into the overflight
and confirmed that it found no violation of
the federal aviation regulations.
“As I understand it, there is no ‘no-fly
zone’ around the plant,” said Charles Ellison,
site communications specialist at the nuclear
plant. He said security staff had estimated
that the glider flew about 400 feet above
the plant, and so they contacted local law
enforcement. “Any time an aircraft is flying that close, we consider it a perceived
threat to security,” he said. Ellison said it’s
the plant’s policy to turn the matter over to

local law enforcement. A spokesman for the
Darlington County Sheriff’s Office did not
return phone messages requesting comment on how the concept of a no-fly zone
was introduced, but differing reports of
the aircraft’s altitude give an indication of
how the perception of a threat escalated.
Fleming’s flight recorder gave the glider’s
altitude when it passed over the site as 1,518
feet msl; the highest charted obstruction
there is 577 feet msl. The incident report
cites security supervisor Tim Robertson
as reporting that “his security guards had
seen a small aircraft noiselessly circling
the power plant within only a few hundred
yards of critical structures.”
Griffin said she heard security people
saying Fleming had flown 100 feet over the
dome. “That just wasn’t true,” she said.
ABOUT 5:30 P.M. the next day, Fleming was
released after 24 hours in custody. Frank
Reid and two other pilots took him back to
the airport, where Ewing Reid met them
with Fleming’s trailer to retrieve his glider.
Fleming had called Ewing Reid from a
pay phone near his jail cell about 10 o’clock
AOPA Pilot Magazine - February 2013

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