You actually want us to enforce our rules?

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: American airspace rules - Brief Article

One hole in the FANs system appeared in May, when a 69-year old pilot caused near-chaos in Washington by penetrating the restricted air space around the nation's Capitol. The pilot took off from the small airport in Smoketown, Pa., without checking weather reports and without reading the FAA's "Notice to Airmen" which pilots are supposed to read before taking off and which would have told him about the restrictions. He then proceeded to get completely lost, penetrating three layers of restricted airspace--"we have a system of systems"--becoming confused and falling to respond to several warnings by pursuit planes before finally answering.

Why was this pilot flying? He was supposed to have his piloting skills reappraised every two years and have frequent physicals. But what the system...