Secret Service: South Florida airport to stay closed when Trump in town

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Ever since Donald Trump -- even as president-elect in late 2016 -- began vacationing in Palm Beach, the U.S. Secret Service has established flight restrictions for those visits that have hampered commerce at Palm Beach International Airport and other area air facilities, and effectively shut down the Lantana airport.

In an interview at The Palm Beach Post, an agency official said he has worked with local aviation and government leaders to compromise when the agency can -- which he says is rare -- and to explain when it cannot. For example, why no matter what Lantana does, it will stay shut when the president is at Mar-a-Lago.

The Secret Service says it has discussed those issues privately with those leaders. But it's said little publicly. Until now.

The agency isn't allowed to be right just 99 percent of the time, and everything flows from that, said Craig Marech, who manages the agency's airspace security branch.

He and Catherine Milhoan, head of communications for the Secret Service, met Tuesday at The Post with a reporter and members of the newspaper's Opinion section. Marech was in town to speak Wednesday at PBIA for a regional forum of the National Business Aviation Association, which represents corporate aircraft.

Because the Lantana airport -- officially named Palm Beach County Park Airport -- is inside a 10-nautical-mile radius of Mar-a-Lago, the Secret Service bars planes from flying either in or out of it when the president visits.

The president of the private operator at the airport has said businesses lose a combined $15,000 on an average weekend, and some already have either bolted to other airports or gone out of business, costing him tens of thousands in lost long-term revenue from rent and fuel sales that he had counted on.

Jonathan Miller, president of "fixed-base operator" Stellar Aviation, has said he's already lost a half million dollars from businesses and tenants that have left.

Leaders from the airport and the county, elected officials for both the county and area cities, and state and federal legislators all have stressed that the president needs protection, but have lobbied for accommodations to limit the local economic impact.

The White House has not commented on whether it would try to limit presidential visits to lessen the local impact.

Marech said the restrictions are designed "to let the most planes fly with the least impact and balancing security for the president."

He said a small plane cruising at 120 mph is going 2 miles a minute. Lantana is 6.5 miles from Mar-a-Lago.

"You are literally talking about seconds, " Marech said. "The more time we have, the more time for decisions on the ground."

He said South Florida is one of the busiest areas for general aviation in the country. And, he said, 60 percent of all traffic at PBIA is general aviation, as opposed to commercial flights. He said the balance usually is in the other direction at most airports. New York's LaGuardia, for example, allows just four general-aviation planes to operate an hour.

"We do a very good job, but it's a difficult mission," said Marech, who has spent 16 1/2 years with the Secret Service and handled airborne security for the details of President Barack Obama -- including in Hawaii -- before Trump.

Marech also mentioned perspective; just eight violations the previous time Trump visited, from the many planes that transit the area. He likened it to the few people pulled over for traffic violations on an expressway while thousands of motorists traverse within the rules.

"If we could have zero, it would be wonderful," he said. And in fact, authorities did report no violations the weekend of Dec. 8-10.

But, he said, it's the one pilot with bad intentions, the "needle in a haystack."

Marech said pilots passing through the area are supposed to do three things: "squawk," or transmit a ping that lets air-traffic controllers know where and what they are; talking both ways with those controllers; and filing a flight plan.

"We want to know what you're doing and if we have to move you," Marech said.

All of those are required for planes inside the restricted zones. But the pilots have to know they're in those zones. He also said many pilots aren't used to flying in restricted air space.

"Most pilots want to enjoy their day. That's why the education is so important," Marech said.

Marech did say the Secret Service has been more accommodating with its "gateway" operations than in other parts of the country. "Gateway" airports have facilities and personnel where pilots can be cleared and then fly at least into the outer rings of the restricted zones.

The two for Palm Beach County are the international airports at Fort Lauderdale and Orlando. Also, airports near New York were permitted to be gateways for snowbirds and other long-distance aviators heading to South Florida. Marech said that's not been done before.

The 10-mile ring is another matter.

"We did everything we could to try to mitigate the circumstances to allow Lantana to stay open," Marech said. "Unfortunately, Lantana sits in the heart of the flight restricted zone. No matter what I did with this, there was nothing I could do."

Businesses have suggested bringing Lantana traffic under the purview of the PBIA tower. Marech said PBIA couldn't handle both airports. They also proposed a "cutout" corridor west from Lantana that would allow flight schools to operate over the sugar fields or even Lake Okeechobee. Marech said such an aircraft could suddenly turn and become a threat. And officials proposed for Lantana adding a TSA security operation or installing a temporary air control tower, or both.

Marech said that, by federal code standards, Lantana just is too open to be considered secure, even if it added those things. And, he said, even if it did meet the standards, it would be limited to comings and goings. That means flight schools, banner towing services, and pilots practicing "touch-and-go" takeoffs and landings still would be banned, as they are even at PBIA when the restrictions are in place.

Lantana's Miller has asked why his airport can't come under the same rules as three general aviation airports in Maryland, just outside Washington. Marech said those represent a different dynamic. He said those setups were established by Congress years ago, the restrictions are permanent and are monitored day in and day out, and area pilots know the rules.

"We are not giving up," Palm Beach County Airports Director Bruce Pelly said. He said he's asked Assistant County Administrator Todd Bonlarron to work with officials in New Jersey where Trump stays at his golf club, in hopes of pressing federal authorities for more accommodations.

And U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla. -- the two airports and Mara-Lago all are in her district -- said Tuesday, "The Secret Service is responsible for keeping the president safe and I defer to their judgment on how to do that. I wrote a letter to the president last year outlining the economic impact of visits to the Lantana airport. Obviously that airport is not part of the president's plan to make America great again."

Eliot Kleinberg writes for The Palm Beach Post. Email: ekleinberg(at)pbpost.com.

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