Click to watch video

It was a day that would cost and change so much: Sept. 11. Now at commercial airports, we're willing to be scanned and scrutinized so a similar attack will never happen again.

But national experts say consulted by 11 News say we're making another mistake. Take Mary Schiavo, an expert in general aviation methods and security and the former Inspector General for the U. S. Department of Transportation.

"The terrorists have moved onto other plans," Schiavo said. "And there's really nothing to stop them."

So what's the problem?

While Uncle Sam spends billons a year on commercial airport security, thousands of smaller general aviation airports are almost going unnoticed. In fact, the TSA only has suggested security guidelines for these airports that often house anything from single-prop Cessna aircraft to larger commercial airline jets.

Hence experts like Schiavo say that inattention is leaving the door wide open. For example, if a terrorist wanted a jet, rather than hijack as in 9/11, the fear is he might just steal it from one of these airports.

What's worse: Especially in the Houston area, terrorists could create a disaster far bigger than 9/11 with such a vehicle

We'll tell you more on that later. First, we decided to check out the first half of the problem, security.

So this winter we visited some of the area's general aviation airports to test how locked down they were.

Our first stop was Hooks Airport in northwest Harris County.

Here we just simply drove up to a metal gate with a call box and asked: "Can you open her up?"

A loud buzzing occurred and the gate slid open letting us past the barb wire and onto the tarmac. No one asked us any questions.

Once inside we found a large corporate jet with the door open and no one in sight.

But we wondered if such easy access might just be a fluke. So a few days later we returned.

Once again we buzzed the call box at the gate.

"Hey can you guys let me in?" we asked.

 "Uh, who is this?" asked a voice from the call box.

Our cameraman gave his name and said "I'm just here to see the plane; I was over here last week."

"All right," said the voice and the gate opened, again giving us access to plenty of planes.

However after awhile we were stopped by an airport employee who told us: "Yeah this is homeland security here."

He never asked for our ID, but he did give us a friendly ride back to our truck.

“This is homeland security," repeated the employee."As in U.S. Homeland Security."

"Well how in the heck did I get in here then?" we asked.

His answer: "That's what I was wondering."

And we left the airport with no problems.

Next we visited the Sugar Land Regional airport. It's has a luxurious new terminal, but we found its security fence doesn't go all the way around, leaving a gap of several hundred feet for anyone to enter through.

Despite that, we also found a locked gate, but there were also unlocked doors that led to the hangers and a number of unattended corporate jets.

But, perhaps the most troubling of all was our last stop: Lone Star Executive Airport in Montgomery County.

KHOU-TV

11 News was able to just drive up onto the tarmac and to an empty and large commercial jet at a Montgomery County airport.

At the front door was a warning sign saying to report "suspicious activity" and a photo of the burning World Trade Center. But because the airport had no interior fencing, we were able to just drive up onto the tarmac and to an empty and large commercial jet.

Having videotape our "adventures" we shared them with expert Schiavo.

"Oh wow!" she exclaimed as she watched us walk up to the commercial jet. "If he's this close, I mean he's basically in the plane at this point"

Her reaction to what we found at all three airports?

"It's not acceptable," she said. "Absolutely not acceptable. People don't realize, they assume there's much more security than there is."

She also emphasized the planes we found someone "can turn ... into a lethal tactical weapon."

Schiavo said that's because planes like what we found at Sugar Land Regional, "most likely, the planes can be powered up and ready to go"

Schiavo, a pilot herself, also showed us how many planes and jets don't require keys.

She also said larger passenger jets like we found may be locked but that many use the same key.

"Once you're moving, there's no stopping you" she said, like the man who stole this seven million dollar jet two years ago from Atlanta. In that case it was a joyriding prank.

But Houston offers terrorists the types of targets that Schiavo said can create a real nightmare: chemical plants and their storage tanks.

"Many people would loose their lives," she said if a plane or jet was stolen and crashed into the right chemical storage tank.

In fact, 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had explored that very idea by searching for targets in states like Tennessee, before settling on the World Trade Center

What's more worrisome, the Houston area has more of what the government calls "high-risk chemical plants" than anywhere else in the nation. That's because those facilities store deadly chemicals like chlorine, ammonia, hydrofluoric acid, and even the chemical weapon phosgene in tanks sometimes millions of gallons large.

"They're not designed to take the kind of impact that you're talking about," said chemical engineer Phil Whitman about most facilities storage tanks and the idea of plane crashing into it. Whitman has investigated more than 100 chemical tank ruptures and said there's no doubt, "an executive jet could penetrate one of these tanks."

And then what?

"The question I'm most often asked is how many people will die," saod Dr. Jay Boris, chief scientist at the U.S. Naval Research center. Boris said a major chemical release especially at one of the plants in the Houston Channel "would spread out and over most of the downtown area."

The result, said Boris: "Something that's potentially much worse that the world trade towers in terms of people injured or killed.”

In fact, Boris has previously worked up a worst case scenario for a Houston-area client using computer modeling. In his model he used a chlorine gas release and found it "spreads broadly in areas," especially across downtown Houston.

So what are the effects of breathing chlorine gas?

"It goes into the lungs, people choke" to death said Boris. "The consequence if you don't die is you may be on a respirator for the rest of your life."

11 News also found that one federal multi-agency study estimates up to 17,500 fatalities and another 10,000 severe injuries from such a chlorine gas release.

So what did the airports we tested have to say about all of this?

First we showed Lone Star in Montgomery County our videotape, such as where we drove right in and walked right up to a jet.

"What I see there is what I see at virtually any other general aviation airport," said airport director Jeff Billyeu. But when we asked him about our access to the large commercial jet there, he said, "That is outside my responsibility, that is the tenant, the owner of that aircraft's responsibility."

So what about the Sugar Land Regional Airport that we also visited and found unlocked doors leading to planes?

"We do obviously need to look at the situation," said director Phil Savko. "Obviously there was a lapse in not locking that door." He also told us: “We're going to take immediate steps to correct the situation."

Finally, what about Hooks Airport, with those expensive call boxes but no tough questions on the other end.

We showed our videotape to management there and received an e-mail comment from them, saying "As you may know, Hooks Airport is a private airport and is not regulated. Thus, Hooks Airport is not in breach of any security regulations. Nonetheless, we appreciate your bringing these matters to our attention and we will take the appropriate action." 

But expert Schiavo said she hopes such action comes soon at all our area's airports. That's because she said a city like Houston "has tremendous vulnerabilities, and I assume it's a matter of when ... not if."