On Sunday night, a person broke into the Boulder City Airport and took an airplane without permission. After several touch-and-gos on the runway, the suspect landed the plane and was subsequently arrested for various felonies, including flying while drunk. In order to clarify several misconceptions, the following points should be made: * the airport is classified as a general aviation airport. It is not a commercial airport, such as McCarran. The airports in the Las Vegas valley operate under a different FAA approval certificate (commonly referred to as a Part 139 airport) than Boulder City and have different security requirements * General Aviation airports generally do not have full-fledged security fencing, as it is not a requirement that they do by the FAA. Boulder City has taken steps within the last ten years to provide security fencing (such as 8 ft tall fencing with angled barbed wire at the top) for the perimeter of the airport. We also have instituted electronic access controls for those gates which are under the airports control. However, there are several pedestrian access gates that are not managed by the airport that are used by businesses located on the airport for their employee access. Maintenance and operation of those gates and how they choose to make their leaseholds secure is their choice and responsibility. The aircraft that was taken without permission was located within one of these areas. *There is a misconception that the Airport is required to comply with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) requirements for passengers. It is not. Nor have they provided funding for any improvements, security cameras, metal detectors, etc. The fencing and electronic gate access for those access points controlled by airport management were funded solely by the airport. But as noted above, there are several access points not controlled by the airport. *There is a misconception that Homeland Security provides funding to the airport for security. It does not. Their involvement with the airport is generally limited to when the President of the United States is visiting the Las Vegas area and they want to secure all airports in the region.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 21:42:49 +0000
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