Blast ‘em From the Skies?

Earlier this month Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) sponsored a last-minute amendment to the Defense Department authorization bill. The McConnell amendment would authorize the shooting down of civil aircraft if a flying agent--of the Coast Guard, Drug Enforcement Administration or Customs Service--concludes that the pilots do not intend to follow directions to land immediately. The amendment further would indemnify these agents from any responsibility for their actions.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) proposed a vote to kill that amendment. He found strong support from Sens. Sam Nunn, (D-Ga.) and John Glenn (D-Ohio), but the motion was defeated in a 45-55 roll-call vote.

Secretary of Transportation Samuel K. Skinner previously expressed his opposition and deep concern about this issue to William J. Bennett, director of the office of National Drug Control Policy. Still, the defense authorization bill with its McConnell amendment was passed in the Senate and will become law unless changed in conference between the House and Senate.

Great Jumping Jehosaphat! What is this country coming to that it would permit a drug agent of the Coast Guard, DEA or Customs Service, however well intentioned, to declare virtual war on any civil airplane that flies openly through our skies?

Interpretation of intentions can be very inexact. Yet this provision would leave to the judgment of one enforcement person in the air whether or not to kill people -- perhaps a whole family returning from a business or pleasure trip abroad.

There is no way short of accurate intelligence to know what an airplane carries or who is on board. Fortunately, we do have some good intelligence. We need to get better. There are aviation regulations already in force that govern airplanes flying to or from the United States, including one requiring a pilot to land immediately when so directed.

We do have a war on drugs and it must be won. We do not have a state of war that sacrifices our civil air commerce. The Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean is not the Persian Gulf, where many lives have been lost because of misidentification. Do we, as a nation, wish to create that aura in our skies? Who would be responsible if an airplane shot down by a DEA agent crashed into a house or a hotel? If McConnell’s amendment is enacted, such a disaster is likely to happen sooner or later. More than 137,000 general-aviation business or pleasure flights were made into the United States last year.

I have fought in three wars for our nation and know full well how honest mistakes can be made in the air, even by those trained to fly in a combat environment. We have the best aviation system in the world. Let us not permit a few zealots to destroy the majority’s right to free passage in the air. Let us find a way to arrest those who defy the law, not hazard all who fly.