Terminal evacuated for unattended backpack day before plane crashes
By NEIL YOUNG/The Daily News
Published: Thursday, April 25, 2013 1:49 AM MDT
BULLHEAD CITY — Last Friday and Saturday were unusual days for the Laughlin/Bullhead International Airport. There was a plane crash Saturday, after the pilot killed himself with a gunshot wound to the head before his single-engine plane plunged to the ground near the runway.
Previously — on Friday — the airport’s main terminal was evacuated for approximately 45 minutes due to a backpack found on the sidewalk, reported Airport Director David Gaines at Wednesday’s Mohave County Airport Authority board meeting.
“A very observant airport tenant employee saw it and reported it to a law enforcement officer on duty out here, whereupon we initiated our evacuation procedures,” Gaines said.
Bullhead City Police sent their bomb robot to the scene.
“A flight had been processed (but) they were in the other terminal building and were not at any risk,” Gaines said.
The backpack’s owner “realized it was missing and came back for it,” he said.
“In both situations, the aircraft crash and the evacuation, the response from all emergency responders, whether it was airport or from city PD, Bullhead Fire, other agencies, including the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), everything worked like it’s supposed to work,” Gaines said.
The plane crashed between the runway and the parallel taxiway. If the plane had crashed on the runway, airport operations would have been at a standstill, he said. “The crash scene didn’t create a problem for some aircraft operations. So we were able to get our scheduled charter flights out. We were able to get some general aviation aircraft out who needed to leave.”
FAA investigators came from Las Vegas within two hours of notification, Gaines said. Within seven hours after the crash, “the recovery team from the FAA had removed the plane from the airport. I thought that was pretty amazing that in about (seven) hours, from discovery to site cleanup, everything was done.”
Regarding the airport’s legal action to prevent the closure of its contract control tower, “the initial notice to federal court was filed on Monday. And then we will have another petition that will be filed following this one,” Gaines said. “The initial filing is on our own, but the federal courts have consolidated all the lawsuits right now.” The lawsuits will be heard in the Ninth Circuit court.
The MCAA board has authorized an expenditure up to $25,000 for legal action against the FAA.
Source: http://www.mohavedailynews.com
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