Virginia 911 Center Guides Distressed Pilot To Land

ACCOMAC -- The Eastern Shore of Virginia 911 Center staff successfully faced an unusual emergency situation the evening of Dec. 27, when it was contacted to provide assistance in landing to a pilot in distress over Accomack County.

The emergency situation was further complicated by the recent snowstorm. It was a time in which a caller was assisted and no local fire trucks or ambulances were called.

"It was a very unique call," said Jeff Flournoy, 911 Center Director.

Flournoy said at 9:30 p.m. last Monday, the 911 center received a call from the pilot of a Cessna 150 airplane requesting assistance to land his airplane after he experienced an electrical failure losing lighting, communications, and navigation equipment functionality while flying from Norfolk to Atlantic City, N.J.

The situation was dire, Flournoy said. "He told me he has a flashlight in his hand, looking at a map," Flournoy said of the pilot.

After contacting several airports for an "open and available runway," one was located at the Salisbury Airport in Maryland and the plane landed safely at 10:18 p.m.

Working with multiple agencies, the communications officers at the 911 center remained on the telephone with the pilot until he safely landed.

Flournoy recognized 911 staffers Susan Linton, Krista Kilmon, Ashley Mapp, Rudy Hudson and Tonya Taylor, all of whom had a role in the successful landing.

He said his staff handled the call with a great degree of skill -- it already was busy with the snow-related vehicle incidents.

"We were handling all the numerous calls from the snow and its aftermath and during that time, this call came in and involved us making a lot of phone calls and bring committed to this pilot."

In addition to locating an available runway and working to keep contact with the pilot, which was lost at times and then regained, the 911 center staff's assistance included providing the estimated distance to the airport, wind check information, and even contacting his family during the incident and just after the incident to report a safe landing.

The center report said they process thousands of 9-1-1 calls each year, but "9-1-1 calls from pilots flying an airplane are rare."

www.easternshorenews.com

Pilot Error Alerts Fighter Jets

WASHINGTON - Federal officials say an airliner pilot inadvertently turned his radio to the wrong frequency, leading the plane to lose radio contact. Because of that, fighter jets were scrambled out of Andrews Air Force Base and the U.S. Capitol complex was evacuated Saturday.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters says the agency is reviewing the "pilot readback error."

The loss of contact with the flight led to a brief evacuation of the U.S. Capitol and all Senate and House buildings.

Piedmont Airlines flight 4352 was flying from Hilton Head, S.C., to Reagan National Airport when it lost radio contact with air traffic controllers for about 15 minutes, Federal Aviation Administration officials said.

U.S. Capitol Police spokewoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider says the plane entered restricted airspace heading toward the U.S. Capitol around 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

F-16 fighter jets were scrambled from Andrews Air Force Base, but the airliner was able to re-establish radio contact and landed at Reagan, said Stacey Knott, a spokeswoman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

Contact with the flight was reestablished, the evacuation was called off and the flight landed at Reagan National.

The evacuation order issued around 1:30 p.m. was called off about a half hour later.

U.S. Capitol Police sent Capitol Hill staffers the following e-mail to evacuate Saturday:

• An unauthorized aircraft has entered restricted air space.
  
• Evacuate immediately the Capitol, CHOB, LHOB and RHOB buildings.
  
• Remain calm and move in a safe manner to the exits.
  
• Close doors behind you, but do not lock. Avoid using elevators.
  
• Proceed south to an alternate assembly area.
  
• Check-in with your Office Emergency Coordinator at the alternate assembly area.
  
• Ford Building personnel remain inside the Ford building.

Piedmont is a wholly owned subsidiary of US Airways. Airline spokeswoman Tina Swail says the airline is working with local authorities to investigate the incident.

www.wtop.com

Beginning Tomorrow More BWI Passengers To Go Through Imaging Machines

The chances the government will ask to see through your clothing before you board a plane at BWI Marshall Airport will be a lot higher starting tomorrow.

Advanced imaging technology, which until now has been used as a backup method for screening passengers at BWI, will become a routine matter this week, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The difference will be subtle at first. TSA spokeswoman Lauren Gaches said the four advanced screening machines now deployed at the airport will each be moved about 5 feet forward at their security checkpoints. Instead of a limited number of passengers being pulled from the herd at random and asked to go through the machines as a secondary screening, the imaging will now be the primary method.

"It will be the first technology for the passengers that they encounter," said Gaches, who could not give an estimate of the percentage of passengers who will be directed to the machines but said it would be higher than the current numbers.

The move is part of a gradual shift toward making the more revealing technology, which the government considers superior for its ability to detect non-metallic and well as metallic "threat items," the gold standard of security screening at U.S. airports.

There are now about 80 of the advanced imaging machines deployed at U.S. airports, but the TSA expects to have about 450 by the end of the year. And BWI is expected to get its share of that increase.

As of now, passengers will not be required to go through the machines if they object. Those who don't want to be screened that way can say no, but they can expect to receive a pat-down search as well as the familiar metal detector screening. That isn't a change from current procedure for those who decline, but more passengers will be confronted with the choice of what critics have called an "electronic strip search" or a manual exploration by a TSA officer.

Those who choose the machine will have images of their bodies transmitted to a computer screen in a small, stark, windowless room off the checkpoint where a TSA officer will view the shadowy images with facial features blurred over.

At a screening demonstration on Monday at BWI, a TSA volunteer passed through an imaging machine at Pier B, which like the others at BWI uses millimeter-wave technology.

Looking at the image, it was possible to determine the gender and general shape of the female volunteer, as well as the suspicious item strapped to her waist, but there was nothing titillating about the display. It resembled a full-body X-ray, though the millimeter wave technology uses radio waves rather than penetrating radiation.

According to Gaches, the TSA officer in the room never sees the passenger passing through the machine, and the officers dealing with the passengers never see the images of those they encounter face-to-face. She said the radiation from the millimeter wave machines amounts to about one-10,000^th of that emitted by a cell phone. The images are permanently deleted once the screening is over, Gaches said.

Despite the TSA's well-publicized precautions, the use of the technology has drawn criticism from privacy advocates and others since it was first introduced in 2007. The Electronic Privacy Information Center and Ralph Nader have urged Congress to suspend the practice, contending the technology is ineffective, too costly and unnecessarily intrusive. EPIC is suing the department in an effort to gain access to documents concerning the scanners.

But the TSA and its parent Department of Homeland Security have rejected such arguments and have intensified their efforts to implement the technology after an attempt to blow up an airliner approaching Detroit last Christmas Day.

For many passengers, privacy concerns take a back seat to worries about the time it takes to get through the checkpoints. Gaches said the TSA does not expect the use of the scanners to add time to the process, and some passengers who went through the devices said they thought it went faster than the alternatives.

However, the advanced imaging procedure does not eliminate the step in the screening process where passengers kick off their shoes for screening with carry-on luggage. That remains unchanged.

Gaches said the first machine will be moved into the primary position Tuesday at Pier A. The two at Pier B and the one at Pier D will be moved by the end of the week, she said.

Passengers who were randomly selected to go through the imaging machines today saw no problems doing so.

"If it works to do what they want it to do, then it's fine," said Nanette Ackerman of Coconut Creek, Fla.

Tara Adlesic of Ellicott City went through whole-body screening for the first time and said it didn't bother her.

"It's probably less intrusive than to have somebody pat you down," she said.

www.baltimoresun.com