Credit: Stratford Fire Department Local 998
Gregory Baxter
Stratford
The recent crash of a small plane at Sikorsky Airport has touched off yet another round of ill-informed opinions and misleading pronouncements by people who place their own private interests above public safety.
Unofficial and unprofessional claims of "pilot error" have been put forth by several writers as a reason to not improve the safety of the airport. By that logic, we should not be required to have automobile seat belts, airbags or Jersey barriers to protect the public, because most traffic casualties are caused by driver error. A proposal to "shorten or close a runway" was put forth by Mayor John Harkins. This makes no more sense than narrowing or removing existing highway lanes so as to reduce the number of accidents.
The runways' lengths would not, and can not, be changed merely by the addition of a safety zone. The use of EMAS in the proposed buffer zone does not defy the laws of physics, as has been implied in a previously published opinion. The blast fence at the end of Runway 6-24 caused the loss of the landing gear due to the low approach. Had the buffer zone and EMAS systems been in place this accident, and others, would in all likelihood have been averted.
Let us listen to the voices of logic and reason rather than uninformed opinion and partisan recidivism, and so pursue the path of safety for Sikorsky Airport and its environs.
Gregory Baxter
Stratford
Source: http://www.ctpost.com
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