NATA to Ink Fingerprint Pact

The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) is close to signing a memorandum of understanding with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in which the trade group will train and certify airport workers to take fingerprints.

Under the terms of the new 12/5 rule, pilots of FAR Part 135 aircraft weighing more than 12,500 pounds (the aircraft, not the pilots) are required to be fingerprinted by this December. The challenge, says NATA president James Coyne, is not only in the logistics of having an estimated 10,000 crewmembers fingerprinted in such a short time frame, but also in finding qualified people to take the prints. Coyne says those trained will likely be FBO workers.

Coyne branded the Congressionally mandated deadlines for complying with the 12/5 rule, "as close to unachievable as anything I've ever seen," and indicated the group may have to ask the TSA for additional time. The level of cooperation from the TSA is markedly improved since the arrival Admiral James M. Loy, according to Coyne, who added that under the previous leadership, "I have never seen an agency with a public mission have less of a P.R. sensibility than the old TSA."

In its continuing effort to raise the security awareness of its membership, NATA and USAIG have partnered to produce a new wall poster entitled "Top 10 Common Sense Things You Can Do To Improve Aviation Security."

NATA vice president of government and industry affairs Jeb Burnside called the poster "a simple but very effective way of making sure we get the security message out to as many people as possible."

Copies of the poster have been mailed to the entire NATA membership. Additional copies area available from Kathy Bailey-Sumlin at (800) 808-6262 or via e-mail at kbs@nata-online.org.

By David Rimmer