Rudi Dekkers Says Gov't Aviation Security Report Exposes 9/11 Type Vulnerabilities

July 26, 2012 - PRLog -- Houston Texas:  A new report recently published (July 18, 2012) by the Government Accountability Office exposes gaping holes in security of the US Aviation Industry.  According to Rudi Dekkers, the government has implemented comprehensive security measures intended to thwart would be terrorists from obtaining flight training here in the US; yet there are still serious flaws in the new system that need to be addressed immediately. Mr. Dekkers would know. He’s the former owner and operator Huffman Aviation; the flight center where Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi – the two pilots who crashed into the World Trade Center – received their flight training and commercial pilot licenses.

The report examined the "Alien Flight Student Program" (AFSP). This is one of the post 9/11 security programs implemented specifically to determine whether foreign flight school students pose any security threat. Nearly 30,000 foreigners have attended flight school in the US since 9/11. The government agencies tasked with implementing the security measure are the TSA, ICE and the FAA.

Dekkers points to a flight training center in the Boston area as an example of the most egregious failure of the new security system. From the report:

• Eight of the 25 foreign nationals who received approval by TSA to begin flight training were in “entry without inspection” status, meaning they had entered the country illegally. Three of these had obtained FAA airman certificates: 2 held FAA private pilot certificates and 1 held an FAA commercial pilot certificate.

• Seventeen of the 25 foreign nationals who received approval by TSA to begin flight training were in “overstay” status, meaning they had overstayed their authorized period of admission into the United States.

• In addition, the flight school owner held two FAA airman certificates. Specifically, he was a certified Airline Transport Pilot and a Certified Flight Instructor. However, he had never received a TSA security threat assessment or been approved by TSA to obtain flight training. He had registered with TSA as a flight training provider under AFSP.

Dekkers – who testified on aviation security before congress shortly after 9/11 – says: "We cannot have any tolerance here. We need to have a zero tolerance policy." According to Dekkers, the TSA and the FAA agreed in February 2012 to better exchange information about foreigners requesting to become FAA certified pilots. However Dekkers believes it will take more than exchanging information to keep us safe. He sees problems with the programs procedures such as vetting the foreign student pilots. Since 2009, TSA has continuously vetted all new and existing FAA airman certificate holders against the Terrorist Screening Database, which would include the foreign nationals identified through TSA’s analysis. However, this vetting does not occur until after the foreign national has obtained flight training. Dekkers says: “Terrorists don’t need certificates to fly into skyscrapers; all they need is flight training. This is backwards!”

In addition, Dekkers has recommendations not currently being used by the TSA or FAA that will assure greater safety and help prevent the next 9/11.

• Security background checks on foreigners flying in the US. Currently, any alien with an FAA approved certificate can rent and fly an airplane in US airspace without a security background check.

• Enforce flight school reporting of foreign students. As it stands at the moment, there is no structure in place for a ‘head count’ of students – American or foreign.

• Security background checks on flight school owners and instructors. Anyone can open a flight school on US soil – even foreigners with expired visas.

• Add a photo and physical description to FAA flight certificates. The current FAA certificate looks more like a vehicle registration than a drivers license with much less detail.

Mr. Dekkers is available for interviews' please contact Omni Publicity http://www.omnipublicity.com

The GAO Aviation Security Report Published July 2012 can be found at this link:
http://www.gao.gov/assets/600/592598.pdf

ABOUT RUDI DEKKERS:  Flying has always been Rudi’s passion. He moved his wife and children from Holland to South West Florida so that he could open a flight school. Starting with a small airplane and a part-time mechanic – and with a lot of long hours and hard work – Dekkers build his one man operation into one of the largest independent aviation companies in the US with over one-hundred airplanes and sixty-five employees. People began calling him ‘The Flying Dutchman.’ At any given time, seventy-five to eighty students were enrolled in his school. Most of them foreigners from Europe and the middle east. Dekkers was a hands-on owner who was involved in every aspect of his business. He made it a point to know all of his students and he meticulously followed their progress.

Rudi’s flying empire crashed in the aftermath of 9/11 when it was revealed that two of his students – Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi – flew Boeing 767s into the World Trade Center.  Upon learning of their actions, Dekkers immediately became ill. He was heart broken for the people who lost their live at the hands of these terrorists. Dekkers cooperated with the FBI and appeared before Congress. He did everything a civic minded person could possibly do to help our government understand what had happened and prevent another terrorist attack; but there was nothing he could do to save his business. At his peak, Dekkers was worth over twelve-million dollars. Shortly after 9/11 his personal net worth was in brackets. He lost his business, his family and his health.

Mr. Dekkers tell his amazing story in his popular new book: Guilty By Association (Brio Press 2011). From the Dutch ghetto to Florida s airfields, Guilty by Association navigates the trials and successes that led to Rudi Dekkers becoming the owner of Huffman Aviation School. Huffman Aviation was where terrorists Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, the two men responsible for the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, obtained their flight licenses. Prior to 9/11, Dekkers had been a successful entrepreneur with two flight training schools and an impending airline. After the attacks, he fell under media suspicion as a potentially complicit and culpable character in the incident. In this shockingly honest autobiography, Dekkers candidly narrates his life, his passion for flying, and his memories of the terrorists. Dekkers s first book written in English, Guilty by Association also includes never-before-seen documents from the terrorists time at Huffman.

To learn more about Rudi Dekkers please visit his website: http://www.rudidekkers.com
Or his Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/RudiDekkers