We’re Listening: The Austin Tragedy and its Impact on General Aviation
On the day that Joe Stacks flew his airplane into the office building in an apparent attack on the IRS, many of us in the general aviation community have been holding our breaths, waiting for the attack on our industry to come. It was a little longer in coming than I originally thought, but it’s here. On the day that I wrote the blog about Thursday being an ugly day, my original draft included instances of people using their cars as murder weapons. (Go ahead. Search for stories on people killing others using their cars. You’ll find lots of them.) I scuttled the draft, though, because I was rebutting an argument that had yet to be made. Well, it’s been made now and here’s what you’re saying:
From the Aviation Forum, Zing says,
“It’s already started here in Arizona. At least two of the Phoenix stations have their “investigators” doing promos about the high risk to the public posed by the “thousands of small airplanes sitting unsecured on airports” and the amount of damage they can cause.”
Micki Woolley, Business Development Manager at Grass Roots Marketing
“Not here in New Jersey, which is a bit surprising being that flight 93 on 9/11 departed from Newark Airport and the media does enjoy tying every negative aviation incident to that day. It was treated as an isolated incident, reported on but without any outcry of security lapses or need for reform. Maybe we are jaded, maybe we have other things to focus on, maybe we just have seen the logic and the light. I certainly hope so. This particular incident in TX was a small aircraft owner flying HIS OWN plane. No amount of airport security would have stopped this particular troubled individual from flying that day, and the media should not twist it into anything more.”
From the Aviation Professionals Network, Ed Foster
“Great article and Ben is as right today as he was back then.” When asked what the media in the Orlando, Florida, area was reporting, he responded,”Oh the typical sky is falling mentality, need more security and (wanting the government) to “do something”. AOPA, NBAA and the other industry groups really need to step up the damage control and show the value of GA along with stressing the need for owner/operators to be diligent about security. Just publicizing the GA response to Haiti alone would go a long way towards showing (most people) that private/corporate aircraft have value and that not all owners are rich greedy fatcats.”
So what can we conclude? One: that, as Jeff Schwietzer put it, ” Airplanes Don’t Kill People, People Do.” And two: that as an industry, we have got to get in front of this thing, educating the non-GA community about what our industry actually does before they buy into the agenda-spun stories like those of sensationalist mainstream media.
I have been relieved to see that in most cases, the tragedy in Austin has generally NOT been used to bash GA. After all the negative press of the last 2 years, I was with many in the community waiting for what seemed to be the inevitable grilling that GA and business aviation would take in the press. I am glad that in most instances it didnt come.
The fact is that no matter what the medium, there is little most of us can do to protect ourselves from a single individual determined to cause harm. Whether that tool of destruction is a gun, car or airplane, how much security can adequately protect the public 100 percent? The answer is that it cant. Keep in mind that Mr. Stacks used HIS OWN AIRPLANE in the attack. Our only defense is to recognize the symtoms of rage or mental illness that infects these individuals and help them to seek assistance before their thoughts turn into actions. No matter how much security we may think we need, even a “police state” type of world finds it very difficult to stop one person.
I had the chance to read Mr. Staks “menifesto” part of it was logically written out, but quickly deteriorated to jabbering rage at the end. This was obviously a deeply troubled man who in some cases had brought his economic failings upon himself. It takes an extremely disturbed individual to carry such actions out. This type of intent is certainly not unique. Do we suddenly start prosecuting the postal service every time there is a shooting? How about the auto industry when an angry wife runs over her husband?
The general aviation community NEEDS a proactive and rapid response to such situations. One disturbed individual is not endemic of the ENTIRE aviation community and NBAA and AOPA should be quick, very quick to point that out. This keeps the “sensationalism” out and allows logic to prevail. For the sake of our industry I hope these organizations are listening.