Pilots, residents talk safety

With two fatal airplane crashes near the North Las Vegas Airport fresh on their minds, about 50 residents and general aviation pilots met Wednesday night to identify ways of avoiding future tragedies, including the creation of a community warning system for planes in distress and radar enforcement of low-flying aircraft.

The dilemma created by encroaching housing developments around a busy airport is not unique to North Las Vegas, some of the pilots said.

Aside from increasing awareness about the situation, not much can be done, they said. Signs could be posted to warn motorists that the streets they drive on might be used for emergency landings. Perhaps a loud horn could be sounded to let residents know that a plane is in danger of falling from the sky, pilots suggested.

"I don't know if there is an answer," said veteran pilot Ed Smith, who flies a 1962 twin-engine aircraft out of North Las Vegas Airport. "You can't close the airport. You can't tell general aviation they can't fly."

The neighborhood meeting was held at Advent United Methodist Church, located near the airport. The meeting was organized in response to a pair of fatal crashes: one involving an experimental aircraft on Aug. 22 and a second, six days later, involving a twin-engine Piper Navajo Chieftain. Both aircraft slammed into houses after departing the airport.

One meeting organizer, Linda E. Young, former president of the Northwest Area Residents Association, said urban growth and the airport have been on a collision course since the 1980s, as houses were built closer to runways and beneath flight paths.

"What has transpired over the last 16 years has almost been brutal," she said. "What our concern is, how do we peacefully co-exist?"

Robert Krenn, who lives three blocks from the airport, said at times, "I could almost swear I get tire tracks on my roof."

John Hunt, a lifelong Las Vegas Valley resident, wondered why flight regulations are not enforced.

"They have radar out there," he said, referring to the prospect of using radar as a way to enforce minimum altitudes and glide slopes for approaching runways.

Hunt noted that in at least one of the recent crashes, the Federal Aviation Administration gave special permission to let an experimental aircraft make a flight test with a device to boost the power of its engine.

"Why is the FAA allowing these aircraft to fly out of here?" Hunt asked.

When called for comment by the Review-Journal, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said, "We don't have all the facts yet. We're still investigating, and from my understanding from reading the (National Transportation Safety Board) report, this was not a new device on the engine. This was on the engine since day one."

Gregor said that the FAA and the county and state governments did not have the authority to close an airport except temporarily for severe weather conditions.

An aircraft can use any airport provided that it can land and take off safely on the available length of the runway, he said.

At the meeting, Smith said residents need to be better informed before jumping to conclusions.

"My suggestion is do you homework when it comes to some of this stuff," he said. "The airspace does not belong to the county or the state. It belongs to the federal government."

James Garcia, who lives near the site of the Aug. 22 crash, said experimental planes and large aircraft should not fly from the North Las Vegas Airport.

"For a big plane, if that hits, it's not going to be one house. It's going to be four or five," he said.

Local officials, with the exception of state Sen. Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, were not present at the meeting. Clark County Department of Aviation Director Randall Walker also did not attend.

North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon and City Council members were unable to attend because of a regularly scheduled meeting. But Montandon said the city plans to meet soon with state legislators and Clark County commissioners to discuss "accountability" issues related to airplane safety.

"I have a lot of questions about what can be done on the ground to make sure engines work in the air," Montandon said Wednesday.

Shortly after the Aug. 22 crash, which killed three people, Montandon said that he didn't "recall ever hearing a constituent complain about the safety of the airport in North Las Vegas" in his "almost 12 years as mayor."

But that changed after the Aug. 28 crash.

"Now, of course, you defy all the odds, have two freak accidents in one week," Montandon said. "The phone's not ringing off the hook, but people are saying, 'What are you going to do about this?'"

Pilots in the Clark County Aviation Association will hold a similar meeting 6 p.m. tonight at the North Las Vegas Airport.

Review-Journal writer Lynnette Curtis contributed to this report. Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.