After the propeller plane piloted by New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle crashed into a Manhattan apartment tower last week, killing both Lidle and his flight instructor, Tyler Stanger, fresh alarms went out about the security vulnerabilities associated with small aircraft flying out of regional airports. The celebrity component of the story soon overshadowed security worries.

But there's another reason that security-conscious lawmakers didn't rally to review the protocols of flight plans for hobbyist aviators such as Lidle: the lobbying clout of the 408,000-member Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. The AOPA's political action committee doled out $544,504 to candidates for Congress in 2004. By Labor Day this year it had already surpassed that total with $645,600 in donations.