Air Traffice Control

[slacker]

Irregular News for 06.06.06

 

Miami, FL -- For the next three years, Opa-locka Airport's control tower will be a trailer perched atop cargo containers welded together. Controllers must climb a ladder to get inside. And the tower is only 33 feet off the ground, meaning controllers can't see the entire airfield.

 

''I guess you can call it a piece of modern art,'' said Charles Danger, Miami-Dade County's top building official. ``This is not a structure that meets any code whatsoever.''

 

Some pilots wonder how controllers can guide planes safely given their diminished views. ''They can't see where you taxi out,'' said pilot Rene Martin.

 

The tower dispute is another black mark on the struggling airfield, less than a year before what will be one of its busiest times -- when corporate jets descend on South Florida for Super Bowl XLI in February.

 

The Federal Aviation Administration moved into the temporary, specially designed control trailer in early May because the old 141-foot-tall tower is falling apart. Though controllers had complained about conditions in the old tower for years, wrangling over money between the county's Aviation Department and the FAA has stalled construction of a new $11 million facility.

 

The FAA says the temporary tower is adequate for handling traffic. The agency has a fleet of ''trailer-towers'' it uses for weekend air shows at small airports that don't have control towers, or for emergencies. One was used at Punta Gorda in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley two years ago; another was used at Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport after Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

 

But it's more unusual to place the trailer on top of cargo containers -- and to use it for three years.

 

''It's a little unconventional,'' said FAA spokesman Kathleen Bergen.

 

Danger, though, is worried about the safety of controllers inside the building during storms. And though the FAA has promised to evacuate the tower during high winds, he's also concerned about the trailer becoming a piece of flying debris during a hurricane.

 

He tried to get the FAA to take down the tower, but was rebuffed.

 

The FAA's position: Its towers don't have to meet local building codes, Bergen said.

 

Though the Miami-Dade Aviation Department owns the old tower, the FAA has been responsible for maintaining it, said Sunil Harman, director of the county's aviation planning division. But in the mid-1990s, because of a decrease in airport traffic, the FAA outsourced tower work to Robinson Van-Vuren & Associates of Oklahoma City.

 

The county contends the FAA neglected the tower soon after, and by 2000, controllers were complaining about their safety.

 

An inspection by the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration two years later said the tower needed major repairs or to be vacated eventually. Hurricane Wilma further damaged the building.

 

Miami-Dade's Aviation Department, in the midst of budget-busting expansion at Miami International Airport, was reluctant to spend millions to build the tower. In addition, the Aviation Department wanted the FAA to build it, as it did with the new tower at MIA. The reason: The FAA doesn't have to meet all building standards, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act.

 

But neither side could agree on a time frame. Finally, last year, both sides agreed to start construction, with the FAA kicking in $3.5 million for the new 200-foot tower.

 

Charlie Taylor, vice president of air traffic services for Robinson Van-Vuren & Associates, said staff has been doing a good job in the tower ''all things considered.'' He said controllers have a clear view of the airport's main east-west runway, even though some areas where planes park and taxi are obstructed.

 

Opa-locka was one of the busiest airports in the nation in the 1960s for general aviation traffic. But the airport has been in decline, and the number of takeoffs and landings are down from about 650,000 annually in the 1960s to about 150,000 today. Several buildings are also in disrepair.

 

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[AR Husker Fan]

Sweet mother of God - and just in time for hurricane season!

[BIGREDIOWAN]

Sometimes you have to wonder what in the hell these people are thinking!!! "Oh the weather people say we won't have a hurricane season like last year again!!!" Hey dips&^t that doesn't mean one won't come!!! They might as well climb a tree with some binoculors and a cheap radio!!! "Yep keep coming looking good now the ground is right there and.............(crash).............Okay next plane coming in don't come in so fast!!!