NLV Airport safety

The odds are almost as unbelievable as the tragedy: In less than a week, two different airplanes crashed into two different houses near the North Las Vegas Airport, killing a total of four people.

The airport, which caters mostly to general aviation and regional air tours, is one of the busiest in the country. And it has had more than its share of newsworthy accidents over the past 10 years, including several emergency landings on city streets, runway collisions and deadly crashes on takeoffs and landings.

But in all of these incidents, life and property outside the airport were largely spared.

This past week's accidents, on the other hand, left two homes in smoldering ruins. The Aug. 22 crash of an experimental aircraft killed Jack and Lucy Costa inside their North Las Vegas house, as well as the pilot, 76-year-old Mack C. Murphree Jr. Thursday's crash could have been much worse, as 10 people managed to flee a Las Vegas house near Jones Boulevard and Cheyenne Avenue after a twin-engine Piper Navajo Chieftan smashed into the garage.

These accidents have, justifiably, prompted many folks who live near the North Las Vegas Airport to question their safety. The prospect of having an airplane plunge from the sky and into a home is, quite suddenly, more plausible than it was only a few weeks ago.

"Two fatal plane crashes occurring less than a week apart is cause for serious concern, and we have several questions to which we are now seeking answers," Clark County Aviation Director Randall Walker said Thursday.

Good. Federal investigations into these crashes already are under way, but their findings won't be made public for perhaps a year or more. Local aviation officials need to determine whether they can do anything to make the North Las Vegas Airport safer for its users and its neighbors.

But all that said, no number of policies or precautions can prevent some accidents that result from mechanical failure or pilot error. North Las Vegas Airport is not the only set of runways to be built in relative isolation, only to be surrounded by houses in subsequent years. And the many thousands of people who decided to buy homes near the airport had to know their choice carried some risk.

This week, that risk was realized, defying long odds -- twice.