Reporting Procedures
It is essential that every airport employee (including CFIs) is familiar with how to report unusual or suspicious activity:
- Report to the airport management for your local airport; or
- The GA Hotline: 1-866-GA-SECUR (1-866-427-3287). This hotline is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week; or
- You can also call 911 from any phone
Throughout the year be sure to periodically check for new threats posed to general aviation on the TSA website at www.tsa.gov
Recent TSA Security updates
Here are some of the latest updates from TSA about general aviation security. Click the link or the image to review the updates.
TSA Security Guidelines publication
Pause to Remember…
An entire generation has grown up under the shadow of the events that occurred on September 11, 2001. In fact, some CFIs are already training students born after that date. It would be a tremendous understatement to say that everyone in the USA was touched by the events of that day, and all that occurred afterward.
It is also true that the rest of the world was affected. This Lesson has examined compliance with TSA regulations regarding foreign students, and it is a safe bet that each of those foreign students will have feelings, memories, and viewpoints of things related to 9/11, especially since their access to flight training in the US is governed by post-9/11 rules.
When dealing with alien students, it is important to remember that you are a front-line ambassador for the world of aviation. You are, indirectly, an ambassador for the FAA, and the TSA. Take a little time to consider how you might answer difficult questions from a foreign-born student, such as “do these rules make sense?” Or maybe a student might ask “are we really any safer with all this TSA stuff?” We cannot say “…and the correct answer is…”
Certainly, each CFI has their own feelings, memories, and viewpoints of 9/11 and its aftermath, which would shape their responses to such inquiries. Our encouragement to you is to always be prepared; consider how you might address the most troublesome questions that a student could pose. And then consider how you can fulfill the mission of ambassador in a calm, professional manner.
