Craig Municipal Airport Field Tests New Security System

By David Hunt, The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville

Dec. 29–A network of night-vision cameras and computer transmitters is being installed at Craig Municipal Airport as part of a security experiment that could help thwart everything from thefts to terrorism at Florida’s airfields.

Craig is one of four airports participating in a pilot program for the state Department of Transportation’s Integrated General Aviation Airport Security System. The others are in Gainesville and Hernando and Citrus counties.

Richard Null, the department’s aviation project manager, said the nearly $1 million pilot project establishes a central security center watching over the four airfields.

Null said FDOT worked with South Carolina-based LPA Group to develop the system. In testing it, he said officials are looking at how well it tracks movements, how apt the system is to sound alerts and how long it takes authorities to respond.

Depending on the results, the equipment could be rolled out statewide, although cost might be an issue, Null said.

“Even if it’s really, really successful it may or may not turn into something bigger,” he said.

Jacksonville Aviation Authority spokesman Michael Stewart said the 24- hour-a-day monitoring system is welcome at Craig, a public airport in Arlington off Atlantic Boulevard, where the control tower is typically unstaffed between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.

The equipment likely will be installed next month, he said, and the pilot program is scheduled to run through September.

Craig was site of 162,000 takeoffs and landings in 2006, although many of those can be attributed to flight training.

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