Before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, there were more than 250 planes based at Washington Executive Airport/Hyde Field in Clinton.
After the attack by al-Qaida hijackers who flew a Boeing 757 into the Pentagon, killing all 64 passengers and 125 people in the building, the government closed local airports for five months and soon imposed strict security flight rules over the Washington area.
Now 10 years later, the number of private and business planes based at Hyde Field, off Piscataway Road, has dropped to about 55, Hyde airport manager Stan Fetter said.
Two other small airports in Prince George’s County — College Park Airport and Potomac Airfield in Fort Washington — suffered similar problems after the attacks. All three lost fliers and business because of the requirements involved in getting new government security clearances to fly near Washington.
Business fell off so much at Hyde Field that airport owner Nabil Asterbadi indicated two years ago that he was working with developers to close the airport and develop it and the land around it with 1,800 single-family houses, townhouses and apartments, as well as a retail complex at the corner of Steed and Piscataway roads.
But then the housing crisis hit, halting those plans. Now Hyde is proceeding on two parallel fronts, still open to selling land for development but also moving toward upgrading airport facilities, pending the outcome of engineering studies, Fetter said.
“For the last 10 years, we’ve been in a holding pattern, thinking we’d be sold,” Fetter said. “We’ve tried to maintain the buildings ... but not put millions in.”
Hyde Field, which sells fuel and leases space to airplane mechanics, sits on about 140 acres that is part of a 400-plus-acre site owned by Asterbadi.
Fetter said he sees the potential of attracting more business, including charter planes, because of the growth of convention facilities, hotels and attractions at National Harbor, a 10-minute drive from the airport. Also promising is the influx of military personnel and contractors expected at nearby Joint Base Andrews because of the Base Realignment and Closure process, he said.
Known as the “DC 3,” Hyde, College Park and Potomac fall within the Flight Restricted Zone, a high-security circle with a radius of 17.3 miles from its center at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Va., across the Potomac River from the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington.
For the most part unchanged since 9/11, regulations for pilots in the restricted zone require they register their fingerprints and pass a background check before being issued a personal ID number. They also must take an online orientation course, file a flight plan and stay in contact with air traffic controllers during flight.
Because of the post-9/11 restrictions, which require visits in-person to locations to get clearances, many recreational fliers who rent planes and lease space no longer use the three local airports.
“The pool of pilots went from everybody to a relatively small number that had gone through the security process,” said Chris Dancy, spokesman for the national Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association based in Frederick.
After 9/11, the Federal Aviation Administration awarded grants to airports for physical improvements such as cameras, fencing, new doors and padlocks to improve security, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said.
In fiscal 2002, Hyde received $342,272, Potomac received $150,088 and College Park received $28,000 for security enhancements, according to FAA grant reports.
Anyone taking flying lessons now must also show proof of citizenship, and applicants who aren’t citizens must apply for clearance by the Transportation Security Administration and be fingerprinted.
But the concern about hijacking and terrorist attacks has not eased over the years, and regulators continue to propose rules.
In 2008, the federal Transportation Security Administration proposed that operators of large private planes weighing more than 12,500 pounds, such as charter planes, be responsible for security checks, such as fingerprinting the flight crew and verifying that passengers are not on the terrorist watch list.
The AOPA, which represents and lobbies for private plane operators, considered the rule to be cumbersome, and is working with regulators on amending the proposal as it works its way through the review process, Dancy said.
Besides Hyde Field, the historic College Park Airport also has struggled post-9/11. The number of planes based at the airport plummeted from about 120 to about 50, College Park airport manager Lee Schieck said.
“The recreational and personal fliers elected not to go through the complexities of flying through this airspace,” said Schieck, who lost the airport’s aircraft maintenance business and the five people in those jobs because of the drop in business.
Publicly owned by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, the airfield is where Wilbur Wright, who built the world’s first successful airplane with his brother, Orville, first taught American military members to fly in 1909.
Although it lost many of its recreational fliers, College Park has pilots who fly in for business reasons and walk to the nearby College Park Metro station as a way to get to Washington, Schieck said. Also based at the airport are employees of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in nearby Greenbelt, who use the airport for personal and business reasons, as well as the Prince George’s County Police Department helicopter fleet, he said.
Least affected by the restrictions was Potomac Airfield, about a mile west of Hyde, in Fort Washington.
Airport manager David Wartofsky said that’s because the majority of the pilots who base their personal planes there worked for military and intelligence agencies, and they already had passed background checks.
“Even before 9/11, most of the pilots had other security clearances,” Wartofsky said. “For them, the restrictions were similar to their day jobs.”
Wartofsky, who has owned Potomac with a partner since 1987, said he brings in revenue by leasing space to three flight schools and to freelance aircraft mechanics, as well as to researchers working on aviation security projects.
“It’s a nexus of small business activity,” he said about Potomac.
Some airports farther out from Washington also have been affected. Operating in the less restrictive zone known as the Special Flight Rules Area are several other small Maryland airports, including Freeway Airport in Mitchellville and Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg. Small airports in Anne Arundel County in the SFRA include Suburban Airpark in Laurel, Tipton Airport in Odenton and Lee Airport in Annapolis.
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