October 30th, 2001
To Whom It May Concern,
The following letter was sent to
the Aircraft Owners and Pilot's
Association (AOPA) in response
to comments made by a spokesperson today,
which are shown in the article
forwarded to me by Bill Smirnow today.
Sincerely,
Russell Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA
==========================================================
To: Membership, AOPA
Date: October 30th, 2001
From: Russell Hoffman, Concerned
Citizen (student pilot, soloed)
Re: Remarks by your spokesperson
today regarding new airspace restrictions
around nuclear power plants
To The Membership:
In an article available here:
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/011030/17/attacks-private-planes
Warren Morningstar, spokesperson
for your organization, stated, "A small,
general-aviation aircraft is not
a significant risk to a nuclear facility."
That is patently untrue. I
would like to know his qualifications for
making such a remark, and also
I am interested in knowing when/if it will
be retracted by the board or membership
of the Aircraft Owners and Pilot
Association.
General Aviation aircraft can easily
be filled with high explosives, and
even without that, they can be
used to crash into Spent Fuel Pools or
another of the many vulnerable
areas of a nuclear power facility. The
plants are not nearly as robust
as the nuclear industry claims, especially
considering that many of the plants
are several decades old, and are now
suffering from some degree of embrittlement
-- a problem most pilots are
familiar with, especially pilots
of jet turbine-powered aircraft. The
nuclear industry, on the other
hand, is in denial about its embrittlement
problems.
Here are some other dangers to nuclear
power plants from General Aviation
aircraft, a category which includes
multi-engine jets as well as Piper Cubs:
Crop dusters can fog a nuclear power
facility with gasoline on a still
night, and then crash into the
plant for a spark.
Private jets can demolishing multiple
"backup systems" or be smashed
through the control room itself.
Even a balloonist could drop a "flechette" on a power plant's vitals.
There are only two backup generators
required, for example, for each plant,
and these are usually located within
the debris zone of a single airplane
crash.
Did Mr. Morningstar assess the dangers
from multiple private plane strikes
on a nuclear power plant, each
one filled with something as simple as a
Timothy McVeigh-style fertilizer
explosive?
AOPA has to get realistic, just
like everyone else in America, and
spokespersons such as Warren Morningstar
do not serve the public good,
because every day we leave the
nuclear plants open, they are vulnerable to
a lot more than just airplane strikes.
The spent fuel will remain
vulnerable for many millennia to
come, and the pile grows by about 10 tons
daily across the country (of High
Level Radioactive Waste, and many times
more of so-called "Low Level Radioactive
Waste", which is just HLRW with
filler added).
That's 10 new tons of "targets"
that mustn't be hit under any
circumstances, on purpose or by
accident, or you'll wipe out a city at
least, and maybe a whole state
-- and maybe a good deal more.
Dry Storage Cask areas at nuclear
power plants often look like public
storage sheds from the air.
They too must be avoided in the event of a
"landing away from an airport".
The truth is, airspace restrictions
around nuclear power plants should have
been done years ago, and these
restrictions should be permanent as long as
we have any nuclear waste above
ground.
Sincerely,
Russell Hoffman
Concerned Citizen (student pilot,
soloed)
Carlsbad, CA
For more information on the vulnerabilities
of nuclear power plants, please
visit my web site:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/environm/onofre/index.htm
This email was submitted here:
http://www.aopa.org/forms/inforequest.cfm?email=aopahq@aopa.org
=================================================================
From: "Bill Smirnow" <smirnowb@ix.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 22:08:14
-0500
Subject: FAA BAN ON FLIGHTS NEAR
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS [PRIVATE PLANES]
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
ONGOING THREAT OF NUCLEAR WINTER
IS THE BEST
ARGUMENT FOR NUCLEAR ABOLITION:
http://www.mothersalert.org/nuclearwinter.html
MOTHERSALERT HOME PAGE:
http://www.mothersalert.org
&
http://www.mothersalert.org/moreinfo.html
USA SPACE COMMAND & "Vision
2020," THE US PLAN TO
DOMINATE EARTH FROM
SPACE: http://www.spacecom.af.mil/usspace
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/011030/17/attacks-p
rivate-planes
Planes Banned Near Nuclear Plants
Updated: Tue, Oct 30 5:55 PM EST
By JONATHAN D. SALANT, Associated Press
Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Federal Aviation
Administration temporarily banned
private planes
from flying near nuclear power
plants after
Attorney General John Ashcroft
warned of possible
new terrorist attacks.
The FAA on Tuesday imposed the restrictions
"for reasons of national security."
The ban on
flying within 11 miles of 86 nuclear
plants and
other nuclear sites such as the
Sandia National
Laboratory in New Mexico expires
Nov. 7.
Also in response to Ashcroft's warning,
Transportation Secretary Norman
Y. Mineta told his
department's administrators to
make sure that the
trucking, aviation, railroad, shipping
and other
industries maintained high levels
of security.
The ban on private flights near nuclear
power plants will force nearby
small airports to
close, said Warren Morningstar,
a spokesman for
the Aircraft Owners and Pilots
Association.
"A small, general-aviation aircraft is not a
significant risk to a nuclear facility,"
Morningstar said. "On the other
hand, we also have
to accept that there are serious
national security
threats, and we will do our best
to protect the
nation and keep people safe."
Commercial airplanes, which fly at higher
altitudes, will not be affected.
Nor will the ban
apply to medical, law enforcement,
rescue and
firefighting operations when authorized
by air
traffic controllers.
The FAA also announced restrictions on
private planes because of the World
Series. Only
pilots who file flight plans with
the FAA will be
allowed to fly within 34 miles
of John F. Kennedy
Airport in New York. The restrictions
will be in
effect from 6:45 p.m. to 2 a.m.
EST during all
World Series games played at Yankee
Stadium.
Bans remain in effect on all private planes
within 20 miles of Kennedy Airport
or Reagan
Washington National Airport. In
Boston, New York
and Washington, all private pilots
must file
flight plans with the FAA.
Blimps, news helicopters and banner-towing
planes remain grounded in 30 metropolitan
areas.
----
On the Net:
Federal Aviation Administration:
http://www.faa.gov
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association:
http://www.aopa.org
===========================================================
*************************************************
** THE ANIMATED SOFTWARE COMPANY
** Russell D. Hoffman, Owner and
Chief Programmer
** P.O. Box 1936
** Carlsbad CA 92018-1936
** (800) 551-2726
** (760) 720-7261
** Fax: (760) 720-7394
** Visit the world's most eclectic
web site:
** http://www.animatedsoftware.com
*************************************************
Gebeurtenissen
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Info
over akties tegen de oorlog: http://www.wereldcrisis.nl/
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after the war
