Local Crop-Dusters Take New Security Measures

Responding to the threat of terrorist attacks, Ventura County’s crop-dusters have joined others across the state in disabling their aircraft at the end of each workday and employing other measures to prevent them from being stolen and used for a new wave of airborne assaults.

Crop-dusters returned to the air last week after the Federal Aviation Administration ended a nationwide ban on aerial spraying, the latest of three such work stoppages. Last week’s two-day ban was enacted in response to FBI concerns that terrorists might have been plotting to use such aircraft to spray deadly toxins or biological agents following the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Oxnard pilot Rob Scherzinger said it took several days for his trio of crop-dusting helicopters to catch up on jobs postponed because of the ban.

But as a result of heightened security concerns, he said, he has instructed mechanics to disable the helicopters at day’s end and to block them from public view using trucks and other equipment.

Scherzinger, who manages Aspen Helicopter’s agricultural service at Oxnard Airport, said he has also obtained the hotline numbers of key personnel with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, in case he needs to report suspicious activity.

“We are being as safe as we possibly can be,” Scherzinger said. “Obviously, every [security precaution] can be defeated. But we want to make it as difficult as possible if somebody is thinking of doing something like this.”

Worrisome Evidence Points to Crop-Dusters

Federal authorities grounded crop-dusting aircraft after learning that one of the men suspected of piloting a jetliner into the World Trade Center had twice visited a Florida airport to ask detailed questions about how to fly a crop-duster plane. A crop-dusting manual also was discovered among the belongings of a man now being held as a material witness in the investigation.

Since the attacks, the FBI and FAA have been combing through information on the nation’s crop-duster pilots. FBI agents retrieved information on California’s 400 licensed crop-duster pilots from the state Department of Pesticide Regulation, which oversees those operations.

The most recent grounding appeared to have little effect on California’s crops, according to farm leaders and the head of a statewide crop-dusting association. Still, some concerns remain about the possibility of future bans and their effect on the state’s $29-billion-a-year agricultural industry.

“I think it’s like a lot of industries in the United States; we’re kind of taking it day by day,” said Terry Gage, acting administrative director for the 450-member California Agricultural Aircraft Assn.

“We don’t have any additional information that indicates whether this is permanent or temporary,” she added. “Obviously, this is a national security issue . . . and our members want to do anything they can to [allay] any concerns.”

Responding to requests from the FBI and FAA, Gage said agricultural pilots have supplied authorities with background information on themselves and their inventory of crop-dusting aircraft.

Gage said she also has sent a list of security precautions to all the association’s pilots.

Terrorism experts have said the potential for crop-dusting aircraft to spread anthrax, smallpox, nerve gas or some other toxic material is low. Because these planes and helicopters are specially designed to spray pesticides and fertilizers on crops, they are poorly equipped to handle such a task.

The tanks on crop-dusters have vents, for example, that make them poor containers for a chemical agent such as nerve gas.

Bob Gudgel, a pilot based in Chowchilla, said he believes it would be difficult for terrorists to steal agricultural aircraft because it requires specialized knowledge to operate crop-dusters.

Still, Gudgel said he has joined his fellow fliers across the state in stepping up security precautions. He said he now locks his three planes in a hangar behind a 6-foot fence on his five-acre property.

“We’re keeping good track of them, yes sir,” he said. “There was a definite threat.”

Airport authorities in Ventura County say while they have generally beefed up security at the county’s public airports in Oxnard and Camarillo, they aren’t doing anything specific regarding crop-dusters.

Aspen Helicopters is the sole local crop-dusting operation. Aside from being asked by the FAA last week to provide background information on Aspen’s agricultural pilots, Scherzinger said the company has been left alone to remedy potential security concerns.

“All three [Aspen pilots] are former Army pilots and Army officers, so we are probably a pretty good security risk,” he said. “All we are trying to do is get on with life as usual like the president has asked us to do.”