Springfield News-Leader June 4, 2002
FBI issues warning about small planes
By Liam M. Truchard
The war on terrorism is reaching to the rank and file of America's airports, with the FBI issuing warnings concerning small planes and suicide attacks.
FBI supervisory special agent Steven Berry said the agency had issued an "intelligence update" to law enforcement regarding small planes but he declined to be more specific. The government has issued a number of alerts about possible threats recently, including warnings about possible terrorist activity directed at rail lines, nuclear plants and New York landmarks.
Sherry Wallace, director of marketing and communications at the Springfield-Branson Regional Airport, said the facility has been receiving updates from government agencies, but was restricted from discussing security measures in detail.
FBI officials in Kansas City and Washington also declined to elaborate on what security measures local airports have been advised to take.
The fear is that terrorists would try to steal a commuter jet from a municipal airport, pack it with explosives and fly it into a power plant or fuel storage facility, said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington-based defense policy group.
It's not the actual reactors at the power plants that worries Pike. They are built to withstand blasts.
It's the storage units at the plants containing spent fuel rods that concerns him.
"They're airtight but not bullet-proof," he said. "I don't know what would happen, but I don't want to find out."
All nuclear power plants in the United States store their spent rods on site. A recent government report said most sites are near capacity for storage. The government is trying to open a central storage facility in Yucca Mountain, Nev.
Some question the validity of the warnings. Chris Yates is the aviation security editor at Jane's, a magazine dedicated to covering the defense and security industry.
"In my own opinion, I believe what we're looking at is the continuation of rhetoric of the Bush administration that's getting everyone wrapped up," he said from London.
He said it is possible al-Qaida would carry out such an attack since "general aviation guarantees them the shock horror they are looking for." But he believes the "next evolution will be toward weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical weapons, at altitudes. You could possibly carry out that attack with light aircraft."
After the Sept. 11 attacks, a number of National Guard troops were assigned to guard nuclear plants around the country, including one in Callaway County and one at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said Lt. Tammy Spicer of the Missouri National Guard.
"We patrolled less than a month," she said, adding that troops are now out of all Missouri airports.
Guard units in Pennsylvania, Arkansas and Massachusetts are still stationed at their nuclear power plants, and Spicer said the troops would return if called upon.
"We stand ready to serve if the governor or the president asks us," she said.
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