Arlington Municipal Airport Development Plan Arlington Airport Development Plan | Page 140

Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting
Arlington Municipal Airport is currently served by the City of Arlington Fire Station #12, which is locat-
ed on the east side of the Airport. The facility provides emergency and rescue services to the Airport
and the surrounding area through at least three full-time firefighters that are present at the facility 24
hours per day, seven days per week.
Unless federal regulations change, there will not be a regulatory requirement for aircraft rescue and
firefighting (ARFF) facilities on the airport; however, given the significant amount of aircraft operations,
including a large number of jet aircraft on the airfield, it is desirable that emergency services provided
by Fire Station #12 be maintained to promote the highest degree of safety.
SECURITY RECOMMENDATIONS
In cooperation with representatives of the general aviation community, the Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) published security guidelines for general aviation airports. These guidelines are
contained in the publication entitled, Security Guidelines for General Aviation Airports, published in
May 2004. Within this publication, the TSA recognized that general aviation is not a specific threat to
national security. However, the TSA does believe that general aviation may be vulnerable to misuse by
terrorists as security is enhanced in the commercial portions of aviation and at other transportation
links.
To assist in defining which security methods are most appropriate for a general aviation airport, the
TSA defined a series of airport characteristics that potentially affect an airport’s security posture.
These include:
1. Airport Location – An airport’s proximity to areas with over 100,000 residents or sensitive sites that
can affect its security posture. Greater security emphasis should be given to airports within 30
miles of mass population centers (areas with over 100,000 residents) or sensitive areas such as mil-
itary installations, nuclear and chemical plants, centers of government, national monuments,
and/or international ports.
2. Based Aircraft – A smaller number of based aircraft increases the likelihood that illegal activities
will be identified more quickly. Airports with based aircraft weighing more than 12,500 pounds
warrant greater security measures.
3. Runways – Airports with longer paved runways are able to serve larger aircraft. Shorter runways
are less attractive as they cannot accommodate the larger aircraft which have more potential for
damage.
4. Operations – The number and type of operations should be considered in the security assessment.
Table 3N summarizes the recommended airport characteristics and ranking criterion. The TSA suggests
that an airport rank its security posture according to this scale to determine the types of security en-
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