Managers of West Virginia airports on tower closure list voice safety concerns but vow to stay open

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The three West Virginia airports scheduled to lose contract air traffic control service in coming weeks because of federal budget sequestration provisions will remain open after their towers close.

But the directors of the airports serving Lewisburg, Parkersburg and Wheeling say the loss of their air traffic control towers, announced Friday, raises safety concerns -- because pilots and maintenance crews will no longer have controllers watching their backs as they go about their business.

After meeting with pilots last week to discuss the pending tower closure, "we think we will come up with some good work-arounds" to deal with the loss of air traffic control service at Parkersburg's Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport, director Terry Moore said Monday.

"But we're all used to having the tower cover our backs," Moore said. "We need to make sure the pilots and those of us on the ground are communicating and aware of everyone's location."

The Parkersburg airport's four daily United Express flights to Cleveland will continue to operate.

"Commercial flights operate from uncontrolled fields, like the airport in Beckley," Moore said. "The pilots flying here will have to get used to not having a tower. We've been talking with Tom Cochran, the director at Beckley, to help us get acquainted with the procedures and policies that are involved so we can make the transition here be a little smoother."

While Moore said the Parkersburg airport would survive the loss of its tower, that doesn't mean he isn't "upset and angry" that it's happening.

The FAA's decision to close contract towers at the three West Virginia locations, along with 146 other airports across the nation, starting April 7, "was made with no logical method, and with no planning at all," Moore said. "It was a knee-jerk reaction."

At the Parkersburg airport, the Federal Aviation Administration owns the control tower and the navigational gear inside, including the controls to the airport's rotating beacon, runway lights and emergency siren. Whether airport personnel will have access to those controls remains an unanswered question, Moore said.

"We don't own the frequency to the system that lets the pilots remotely turn on the runway lights themselves after the tower closes at night," he added. "Will we be able to use it? Will the FAA keep paying the utilities for the tower? The lack of planning is making things a little dysfunctional."

Moore said smaller cities such as Parkersburg "have struggled for years to have a level playing field" in terms of air service. "Having an airport with a control tower is an economic development selling point," he said. "It helps form a community's identity -- it makes us a major player. Now, we're back to being one of 4,000 little airports. It's a shame, because so many people have worked so hard to promote this airport and this area."

Both Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport and Wheeling Ohio County Airport host National Guard air installations, which could see their training operations scaled back or moved elsewhere because of the tower closings, according to their directors.

Military planners took the presence of control towers into account in locating their operations at the two airports decades ago. "Now they're going to have to limit their training opportunities, or maybe have to fly someplace other than the place they invested in," said Tom Tominack, director of the Wheeling airport.

Tominack said the loss of a control tower, which has operated at his airport since 1949, "leaves me concerned about the safety factor. We have two intersecting runways, corporate aircraft, a National Guard base with an active Blackhawk helicopter unit, and an Army Reserve center that have relied on air traffic control for training purposes.

"The FAA built the safest aviation system in the world," Tominack said. "To close nearly 40 percent of that system's towers, as was called for initially, is a complete 180-degree turn. It's uncharacteristic of them. We're genuinely concerned for the safety factor being greatly jeopardized."

Despite the closure of the tower, "we will keep the airport open and we will continue to supply aviation services," Tominack said.

At Greenbrier Valley Airport in Lewisburg, an emergency meeting of the airport's governing board is scheduled for Wednesday to look at options for coping with the planned tower closure.

"We're still trying to digest what's happened here," said airport director Jerry O'Sullivan. "But the closure will clearly have a negative impact on safety."

While state, city or local governments have the option of paying for controller service on their own, that doesn't appear to be a viable alternative for the Lewisburg airport, "since it would cost about $600,000 a year to run the tower ourselves," O'Sullivan said.

The airports serving Parkersburg, Wheeling and Lewisburg make use of contract controllers, rather than controllers employed directly by the FAA. Among West Virginia control towers still in sequestration limbo regarding possible tower closures are the FAA-staffed towers at Huntington's Tri-State Airport and Bridgeport's North Central West Virginia Regional Airport. Charleston's Yeager Airport faces a possible loss of its midnight-5 a.m. controller shift.

Source:  http://www.wvgazette.com