December 18, 2002 14:54

Buy a Flight Manual, Get a Grand Jury Subpoena

By Ralph W. Omholt

For a variety of obvious reasons, the federal government today is cracking down on aviation security nationwide. Whether or not the attempt will succeed is anyone's guess.

I speak from experience.

A few months back, I successfully bid on an E-Bay item, advertised as a CD-ROM B-737 ground-school course. I was sure that Boeing had made such a CD-ROM, but there was no particular indication that such an object would contain sensitive or even proprietary information. The ad described the manual as "siimilar to that used by major airlines."

So I made the purchase and, in good time, the instructional CD-ROM arrived at my house.

Then, as they say, the manure hit the air compressor.

Last week, I received a frantic e-mail message from the seller of the CDROM, who wrote with some urgency that he needed it back (with a full refund promised, of course). Curious, I picked up the phone and called the fellow, who works as a flight instructor. He revealed that the FBI had paid him a visit, warning that the content of the CD-ROM disc material - information on how to operate a Boeing 737 airliner - constituted "a national security threat." The agents demanded that my new acquaintance recover and surrender to the FBI any and all such material that he had distributed. Obviously, copyright laws were also involved.

Does this seem unreasonable? After all, the news accounts of the 9/11 terrorists led by Mohammed Atta revealed in stark clarity how they successfully used basic civilian flight school training in this country to prepare themselves to hijack and employ commercial airliners as cruise missiles.

In the 15 months since that horrible day, we have learned that the hijacked-aircraft-as-terrorist-weapon scenario was not even new. In 1994, French commandos foiled a plot by Algerian terrorists, who had already hijacked an Air France A-300, to crash the aircraft into the Eiffel Tower. And the following year, when authorities in the Philippines thwarted an al Qaeda plot to bomb multiple airliners over the Pacific, they also learned that the terrorists were already considering how to crash aircraft into U.S. government buildings.

So there is no debating the sad reality that aircraft can be converted into the equivalent of cruise missiles. And it should not be a surprise that security officials continue to focus on this aspect of aircraft security.

But from a personal perspective - as a career pilot qualified to captain the Boeing 737 and an instructor pilot - I reluctantly must conclude that the FBI supervisors involved in this particular effort are facilitating the Bureau's demise - as proposed by at least one Congressman, who has lost total confidence in the FBI.

There are more than 66,000 airline pilots and about 650,000 private pilots in the United States today, according to aviation industry records. What the members of this vast and diverse group have in common is: They are continuously training and rehearsing their flight skills, a task that requires access to flight instructional material such as the suddenly dangerous B-737 CD-ROM disk that had fallen into my possession.

How can the federal government deny basic flying information to civilian pilots? What does the government intend to do to restrict online purchases of such generic airline training aids? For that matter, what about unclassified military training manuals that are also readily available online and at surplus stores?

The problem is that there indeed is plenty of available information relating to civil aviation that would assist a terrorist contemplating another 9/11 attack. The very best of the training material comes from international online enthusiasts, not Boeing or other aircraft manufacturers.

Some of the most critical information is available on prominent computer entertainment programs. Is the FBI planning to classify or restrict Microsoft "Flight Simulator" or force a retooling of the software to show "make believe" aircraft only? Will popular fighter simulation programs be removed from the market, given their close approximation to the actual "heads-up" flight guidance and weapons displays in military fighters?

And even if somehow the U.S. government could carry out the impossible task of removing this information from the domestic market, what about overseas websites where the same material is available outside the authority of U.S. controls? Will it become necessary to qualify reading and study material under the United Nations' jurisdiction? Are Internet "security filters" on the way? I, for one, hope not.

Before those of you who read this far jump through your hat to accuse me of exaggerating or being overly dramatic, an update:

I just received a call from the local U.S. Attorney's Office asking if I had received the federal grand jury subpoena concerning the B-737 CD-ROM affair. (I had not received it, but I thanked them for the warning.)

In this brave new post-9/11 world - thanks to section 501 (d) of the "USA Patriot Act" passed by Congress on Oct. 25, 2001, once someone receives such a subpoena - if it is served in concert with a terrorist investigation - he or she is not allowed to tell anyone about receiving the subpoena.

This is not funny. This goes far beyond the apparent idiocy of FBI agents trying to round up every aircraft flight manual in existence. It appears that in the name of fighting terrorism, the federal government is working to cancel the First Amendment.

Now I must press the "send" key before the subpoena arrives.

And if you don't hear anything more from me on this subject, draw your own conclusion.

Ralph Omholt is a Contributing Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at skydrifter@attbi.com.

Editor's Note: Omholt received a federal grand jury subpoena late Tuesday.