Regional Airports Could Be Targeted By Terrorists Because Of Smaller Planes
Don Coleman dcoleman@kjct8.com
POSTED: 9:13 pm MDT September 5, 2011
UPDATED: 10:52 pm MDT September 5, 2011
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- Small airports are on alert across the country with the ten year anniversary of 9/11 just one week away. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have issued warnings about possible terrorist attacks using small planes.The impact of that warning could be felt across the Western Slope where nearly every airport is home to dozens of single-engine aircraft.We spoke with passengers at Grand Junction Regional Airport about the warning and possibility of another attack on September 11.Ten years ago this month, terrorists brought the Twin Towers down in the largest attack ever on U.S. soil. Separate hijackings and plane crashes in Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania were also part of the plan and left a hole in the Pentagon while taking the lives of thousands of Americans.For one man caught in the middle of that tragedy, the anniversary brings back frightening memories. "Knowing what had happened to the Twin Towers and all of a sudden hearing something that felt to me like a safe landing on top of the floor above me," retired Army Major General Bill Bond said while waiting for a flight home out of Grand Junction. "I was in the Pentagon."Bond was in the "A Ring" and just yards from the "E Ring" that was hit by the plane. "So, I really could feel it," he said. "There was definitely a fire going on, you could see the smoke."Traveling now with his family, Bond always has the thought of those attacks in the back of his mind. But, he's still not convinced there will be another attack this month."I think it will pass... I'm much more likely to probably die from an automobile accident. Those are real concerns that we as Americans ought to have."Federal security officials, on the other hand, are not so sure.They have issued a national warning about Al Qaeda threats of using small planes at regional airports. And, western Colorado is home to dozens of those facilities."The threats are real and the stakes are high, we believe that we face a determined enemy who has not given up," John Pistole with the TSA said.Experts believe Al Qaeda may be shying away from the more massive attacks by planning smaller ones - using single-engine planes - that are less complicated."These planes are small you might not be able to put some huge device aboard them but the other side of that is if you were to put some biological or chemical agent in one of them, clearly that could cause some major damage depending on your target," Brad Garrett, a security consultant and former FBI agent, told ABC's Good Morning America.Federal officials are hoping to notify as many of these airports as possible before the weekend. Still though, Bond remains hopeful that nothing will happen."If we give into those fears, then we give into the terrorists," he said. "That's what they're trying to accomplish with anything."On average, each United States airport is home to 57 general aviation planes. The government admits that the number may be too much for them to monitor alone, but officials are still working to alert pilots all over the country.
