Has the Transportation Security Administration received any direct threats involving GA?

No, said Brian Delauter, the new general manager of general aviation for the TSA, at a forum on security at the AOPA Aviation Summit earlier this month.

“We are a risk-based organization,” he said. “Is there a risk? Yes. A threat? No.”

When something happens — like the recent crash between a helicopter and airplane in the New York corridor — the knee-jerk reaction at the TSA is that it is a threat against security, he said.

“I have to come in and say, ‘whoa, let’s look at this,’ he said. “If we have a definite threat, then we have to figure out an alternate plan to keep us flying.”

A TFR doesn’t mean there’s a threat, he added. “It’s risk reduction,” he said.

A bit of good news for GA: While Delauter has been with TSA since “day one,” he’s been a pilot since he was 16. “It was all I ever wanted to do,” he said.

He was flying for Northwest Airlines on Sept. 11, 2001. “My job went away,” he said. “I had an abrupt career change.”