General Aviation Security -- America's Small Aircraft Are Not A Threat

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General Aviation Aircraft Have Minimal Ability to Cause Damage

The vast majority of the General Aviation (GA) fleet is comprised of small single-engine aircraft with six or fewer seats. The typical GA aircraft, such as a Cessna 172, weighs even less than a subcompact Honda Civic, carries significantly less cargo, and travels at speeds of about 130 miles per hour. As a result, it would take more than 1,000 small planes acting as one to equal the destructive potential of a single airliner.

The General Aviation aircraft flown from America’s 5,261 community airports are ill-suited for terrorist use, given that they lack the weight, speed, fuel, and load-carrying capacity to do significant damage to a target. That’s why there has never been a known terrorist attack anywhere in the world using a General Aviation aircraft.

GA Aircraft Are Not A Threat To Nuclear Power Facilities

In the face of mounting questions from elected officials about nuclear security, AOPA commissioned a report by internationally recognized nuclear safety and security expert Robert M. Jefferson — formerly of Sandia National Labs — to directly address concerns about any potential risk posed by GA aircraft to nuclear powerplants. The resulting report was then used by the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee during its June 5, 2002 hearing on nuclear plant security.

According to the report, a General Aviation aircraft could not penetrate the concrete containment vessel of a nuclear powerplant. Nor would an explosives-laden General Aviation aircraft likely cause the release of radiation. A small aircraft attack on any auxiliary plant buildings would not cause a safety failure. And a General Aviation aircraft could not ignite the Zirconium cladding on spent nuclear fuel. In short, GA aircraft are not a threat to nuclear powerplants.

Ineffective As A Weapon

The unfortunate suicide crash of a Cessna 172 by a distraught teenager into a downtown Tampa office building demonstrates the ineffectiveness of a GA aircraft as a terrorist weapon.

A November 2004 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on General Aviation Security noted that “the small size, lack of fuel capacity, and minimal destructive power of most General Aviation aircraft make them unattractive to terrorists and, thereby, reduce the possibility of [any] threat associated with their misuse.”

Low Destructive Potential

A fully loaded Cessna 172 weighs approximately 2,450 pounds, carries only 56 gallons of fuel and 120 pounds of cargo, and reaches cruise speeds of about 140 mph. In sharp contrast, a Boeing 767 can weigh more than 450,000 pounds, carry some 24,000 gallons of fuel, and reach cruise speeds of 530 mph giving it 1,000 times the destructive potential of a typical small plane.

Sandia National Laboratories
1988 Rocket-sled Aircraft Impact Test:

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