| Private planes fly back to National |
NewsLover writes "
Private aviation returned to Reagan Washington National Airport Tuesday, more than 4 years after restrictions were imposed in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. The first aircraft arrived at the airport across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia, from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey about 07:00 EDT and taxied through a water arch formed by two fire trucks.
The flight was permitted after the Transportation Security Administration introduced rigorous new rules which require passengers and crew members to undergo background checks. A certified armed security officer also must accompany each flight, and some trips require a federal sky marshal. Flights also have to land first at one of 12 gateway airports.
Commercial airline flights at the airport resumed about a month after September 11, though it took incessant lobbying by local officials and business leaders -- as well as congressional intervention -- to persuade federal authorities the airport was safe for general aviation.
But some people oppose opening the airport to private planes. They argue that it will be harder to differentiate planes that have permission to fly within the restricted airspace over Washington from those that don't have permission.
Pilots have strayed hundreds of times since the government restricted airspace over the capital just before the start of the Iraq war in 2003. In many cases, fighter jets, which are prepared to shoot down a plane, have escorted an errant plane to an airport.
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