Apparently it’s OK to pose as terrorists for an NBC “exposé” on the lack of security at the nation’s general aviation airports.
No charges will be filed against the two NBC employees who attempted to charter a helicopter on August 11 to demonstrate how easily terrorists could hire a general aviation aircraft for deadly intent.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney in Springfield, Ill., said no criminal charges will be filed against NBC employees John Zito and Tyrone Edwards because the two did not break any federal law when they attempted to charter a helicopter. The FBI apprehended the pair at Fostaire Helicopters at St. Louis Downtown Airport in Cahokia, Ill., on August 11, after they tried to hire one of the company’s helicopters.
But Fostaire employees sensed that something was amiss and called the FBI and local police. When co-owner Arlene Thomas asked how they were going to pay for the flight, they produced cash. When she asked them for identification, they produced driver’s licenses from two different states. Their car was registered in a third state.
Before police arrived, the two men had retrieved backpacks and odd-shaped luggage from their car. Investigators later found box cutters hidden in the bottom of the backpacks and other potential weapons in their luggage.
After the reporters were arrested and put in jail, the FBI verified that they were on assignment for NBC New York.
In response to a letter from National Air Transportation Association (NATA) president Jim Coyne, NBC News president Neal Shapiro said his network thought it was important to look at helicopter security following an August 6 alert by the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration that Al-Qaeda might use helicopters in an attack.
“To get as close to the system as we could, we decided it was necessary to do something we rarely do, and sent staffers to try the system firsthand,” he wrote. “We visited Fostaire because it is close to the Gateway Arch, which has been identified as a potential terror target.” He added parenthetically that NBC also rented a helicopter in New York without incident.
Shapiro said that descriptions of box cutters, knives and other weapons were exaggerated, adding that the goal was to test the system without carrying anything illegal. “The helicopter employees did not learn about the items they carried until after our staffers were in custody,” he claimed.
“I am sure we agree that the public is well served when it is informed about current threats, and when it sees how vigilant your industry can be,” Shapiro wrote Coyne.
While Fostaire is an NATA member, the company never received an apology or any further explanation from NBC directly. But Shapiro’s letter did offer some praise. “Fostaire’s employees did what they were supposed to do,” he said. “I hope your members saw our report on NBC Nightly News [on August 12], which included praise from a Homeland Security spokesman who said their actions proved the system worked.”
But Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn.) was not amused. During a late-August hearing before the House aviation subcommittee, which he used to chair, he said, “We need to take very strong action when things like this are done.”