Airport safety

Tom-D

Tom-D

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Tom-D
How secure is your airport? can you leave your hangar unlocked, does it have a fence around it ?

How safe do you think your aircraft is? could some one grab your radios?

What do you do to add security to your hangar.?
 
We have a fence around the 3 "road" sides of the field. The airfield is wide open on the "woods" side. We didn't have a fence or any problems with security pre-911, but the field is close enough to Atlanta that it was deemed necessary to "do something" to give the appearance of security.

I leave my hangar unlocked most any time I am at the field or out flying (unless I'm on an overnight trip). My friends and airport neighbors are welcome to borrow tools, solvents, or whatever they need. Most of 'em have the combination for the lock...

Could someone steal my radios? Sure, walk onto the field, cut the lock on the hangar, put the allen wrench to work, and bye-bye radios. BTW, the allen wrenches are in the top drawer of the roll-away inside the hangar.

With all the frontier justice types and power tools at my field, thievery is strongly discouraged. Bad behavior has consequences. ;-)
 
Most small fields, anyone could take almost any airplane or component they wanted, even if behind a locked hangar door. Larger fields; surveillance systems and patrols reduce this risk. Insurance is your friend.
 
The field that I fly out of is small,out of the way, BUT busy! There is a police officer that lives on field and there is always plenty of action. My base is 20nm (if that far, 15 min drive into DC) from the National Mall and there are some security issues but in general everyone knows everyone. When I first started flying and I was pre-flighting early in the morning someone thought that I was stealing an aircraft and they called the on field officer and alerted the FBO, just to find out that they haven't met me yet!

It was funny though. The biggest issue is leaving keys in the planes. Luckily everyone stops and looks to see who just started so there isn't too much of an issue.

As for hangars, they're all open. Part stealing would be too easy. You could also grab about 20 headsets, an engine or two, and generally some Mooney Parts that're lying around. I'm going flying tomorrow, I'll make sure to tell the owner about some of this, I hadn't thought about safety until this thread.
 
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Some of the airport security stuff cracks me up. Fences pffft. The most innocent appearing way onto to an airport is to fly in. Hangars are great, once in there is no one to notice thieves at work, they get to do a more through job, getting the radios and the Bose headsets from the backseat and anything else lying around even get to enjoy a beer from the fridge before flying out of there.
 
ClimbnSink said:
Some of the airport security stuff cracks me up. Fences pffft. The most innocent appearing way onto to an airport is to fly in. Hangars are great, once in there is no one to notice thieves at work, they get to do a more through job, getting the radios and the Bose headsets from the backseat and anything else lying around even get to enjoy a beer from the fridge before flying out of there.
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Ever watch Repo Men on HBO? The best episodes include the aircraft repossessors. They do just that, fly in in a 182, pretend to fuel or service the aircraft, the repo pilot hops out and checks out the flight line, comes back, bids the 182 pilot farewell and they take off.

One episode had the repo pilot taking the airplane and leaving a 6 pack and a repo notice for a Baron with a note saying "Sorry, pay next time!" That Baron was taken from a charter airline's hangar that was locked and in it's own building.

Pretty cool job if you ask me. Stealing aircraft the legal way, being a pilot, being a test pilot, and having the fun of a thief.
 
ClimbnSink said:
Some of the airport security stuff cracks me up. Fences pffft.
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At least a fence can keep the deer out..sometimes.

The one I don't understand is security cameras. Recording security cameras are supposed to make things safe somehow.

A camera is aimed at the airplane in a hangar on 24 hour record. The owner comes along and the plane is gone. The camera didn't stop anyone. So they review the video. The plane vanished two weeks before. All they see is some hooded character breaking in, getting in the plane and spiriting it away. Even if the face is in the video, it's just a face unless it happens to be someone that the person watching the video knows. Maybe 10 people will see the video then a report is filed and that's the end of it until someone else randomly finds a plane sitting around somewhere that's not paying the tiedown fee or is caught drug running.
It's a crockup. It's less stressful for the owner to find the plane missing than to sit there watching a video of the guy stealing it over and over and over.

I must be stupid because I do not understand.
 
The video is just evidence the owners didn't fly the thing to Mexico for the insurance company.

That and thieves are generally stupid and someone usually does eventually recognize them. Once they get away with it, they usually do it again and again.

Once someone recognizes them and checks alibis, they've racked up a large enough crime spree that they're going away for a long time.

But generally, security cameras just document that theft occurred. They don't "secure" anything.
 
Local airport's cameras can be operated remotely from the Police Station. In the event they are alerted to a break-in, police response would be about 35 seconds. They are 4 blocks away.
Fences, barbed wire, locks, and cameras are only deterrents. A dedicated thief WILL find a way. Just ask any victim.
 
Many of the hangars on our field were broken into about 6 months ago. The thieves mostly stole heavy tools like air compressors and such. The field has fencing all around the perimeter with a keycard entry for hangar owners. The bad guys used bolt cutters on one of the service access gates to gain access to the field. To my knowledge they were never caught.

We've since added more lighting and dead-bolts to all the hangar doors (it's very easy to force open a door that has no dead-bolt). If we had wi-fi available on the field, I would put a wireless, motion detection camera in my hangar, but at present we don't, so I'd have to find some way to use 3G, and I don't want to foot a monthly bill for monitoring.
 
Unfortunately, ONZ has a big fence with intimidating looking signs all around to keep anyone who may be interested in aviation away.

Before I bought it, my ride was at a small rural airport with no fence (it had a gate thing to stop you from driving in at night). It was in an open hangar, and there are no locks on the aircraft doors. The previous owner left the key for the starter hanging on a nail on the wall. Now it is in a hangar with a rather cheesy lock on the door.

Local police often hang out at ONZ after dark. During the day, the border patrol is often parked somewhere on the airport (near the ramp or down at the far end where they can watch the water) but they don't seem to bother anyone. The DEA was set up there for a while (had some kind of microwave antenna in my hangar pointed out the window). So far, fortunately, I have not seen any sign of TSA.
 
silver-eagle said:
Fences, barbed wire, locks, and cameras are only deterrents.
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Yes. And they do a good job of deterring anyone who might be interested in flying and getting a pilots certificate. But that's OK. eventually there will not be enought traffic and the airport will just close. That solves the security problems.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Yes. And they do a good job of deterring anyone who might be interested in flying and getting a pilots certificate. But that's OK. eventually there will not be enought traffic and the airport will just close. That solves the security problems.
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No kidding.
One of the airports I flew out of near my parents house in the 80's was inviting and pleasant. I was there in 2007 and rode over there just to take a look and watch airplanes for a bit on the weekend. Fences everywhere including around the parking lot, a handful of gates, no people in sight, all the doors closed, a handful of vehicles scattered about. I thought I was at a minimum security prison and might inadvertently end up on the wrong side of the fence. I'm a pilot and know that specific airport. I wouldn't go in there. Actually I left without getting off the motorcycle. It was very intimidating. The place is a prison, not an airport.
 
My hangar at BVS is very secure, it has a bi-fold door that I don't believe could be opened with out the button being pushed and the normal machinery used, the man door has one of the better dead bolt type key locks embedded in the steel structure of the big door.

the airport has the 8' fence on all sides with card lock gates for cars and walk thru gates with key pad entry codes.

any one wanting to fly can walk into two flight schools from the street side, and the port offices are open to the public, but you will be challenged if you enter thru either place.

the port provides patrols with radios, but if you wish to buy 100LL you can ask the patrols to allow you thru the gates to do that.

At OKH we had nothing, the airport is wide open and the individual hangars are easily opened by any one wanting your stuff.

I started this thread in light of the bare foot bandit thing and wondering how easy a copy cat could get to your aircraft.
 
There are still many smaller airports, and some that are not so small, where you can drive or walk right on. Also, I suspect a lot of airport theft is done by insiders, not people who just decide to walk in off the street at the spur of the moment. How else would someone know how to get rid of aircraft radios or other parts?
 

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Everskyward said:
There are still many smaller airports, and some that are not so small, where you can drive or walk right on. Also, I suspect a lot of airport theft is done by insiders, not people who just decide to walk in off the street at the spur of the moment. How else would someone know how to get rid of aircraft radios or other parts?
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I'm sure your typical gang banger / drug addict has the street smarts to know which radio's to steal and and which aren't worth it. That's why those old LORAN's and Narco panel hole fillers don't disappear.
 
The big doors on the hangars here are locked only with a standard Master pad lock. The people door at the end of the bank are typically open (as often the doors when people are out flying). The walls separating the individual spaces in the hangar only go up about 8 feet or so, so things are pretty low security.

Similarly, the car gates are locked up in the airport fence, but you can walk through at a couple of points.

Of course at my place in NC, there's no fence. The big door takes power to get the door open and to get there you've already tripped the monitored alarm on the people doors.
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
I'm sure your typical gang banger / drug addict has the street smarts to know which radio's to steal and and which aren't worth it. That's why those old LORAN's and Narco panel hole fillers don't disappear.
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That could also be explained by the fact that it could be an insider. Besides, if you can figure out what radios are good to steal you won't be intimidated by fences at airports which have them, and will find some way to get on the field.
 
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Generally speaking if you want something your gonna be able to steal it. The savy owner just has to make his plane or equipment less attractive and more work to steal. Our field has fences fields and woods but if you want to walk on you can. We also have video cameras but they are focused on the medevac helicopters because its my understanding that they store certain narcotics on them.
I think the best security is an alert pilot population. I was walking the field a few weeks ago with Oz Pilot and I found a set of light speeds hanging from a wing strut. I noticed it and took them in to line service. Its just about being alert for stuff like that which IMHO is the best security.
 
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