OKLAHOMA CITY -
Big safety
concerns are worrying some people in Oklahoma as local airports are on the hit
list as part of the sequester in Washington D.C. The budget cuts include
closing the tower at Wiley Post Airport.
The airport will
stay open, but there won't be anyone up in the tower after April 7 if a deal in
Washington isn't reached.
The six air-traffic
controllers who work the tower at Wiley Post Airport handle around 250 to 300
takeoffs and landings a day. Once the tower closes, pilots will have to
handle that duty on their own.
"It certainly is
going to be less safe," said Mark Kranenburg, Director of Airports for the City
of Oklahoma City.
The main concern at
Wiley Post is the mix of business jets, which are very fast, and smaller Cessna
planes that move much slower.
"The complexity in
the traffic at Wiley Post is what concerns us," said Kranenburg.
Air-traffic
controllers also point out they monitor bird activity from nearby lakes, as
well as keep planes a safe distance from nearby Will Rogers airport. Without
a control tower, procedures will be in place for pilots to talk to communicate
with each other.
"If there's not
one up there you talk on the tower frequency to other airplanes that are
landing and announce your position in the traffic pattern," said Jim Hensley,
who works for American Jet Charter.
Hensley
operates 11 planes in and out of Wiley Post on a daily basis. He also
flies into thousands of smaller airports where there isn't a control tower and
thinks Wiley Post can survive without one.
"It's still do-able.
We can still handle the situation and still be safe. It's just not as
safe," Hensley said.
As part of the
stimulus, the federal government sank $600,000 into a runway lighting system
that will be useless once the tower closes.
The FAA is
allowing a comment period on the closings. The City Department of Airports says
they will use that to try and keep the tower here open. Towers in Stillwater,
Norman, Lawton, Enid, and Ardmore are also scheduled to close April seventh.
Kransenburg also
says the tower at Will Rogers' airport is also facing some cuts. It is one
of 60 the FAA plans on shutting down overnight operations.
Budget cuts enforced due to the sequester in D.C. include closing the tower at Wiley Post Airport, as well as several other Oklahoma airports.
