Extra fuel on hand for planes landing and taking off. Check.
Extra rental cars on hand or available. Check.
Extra personnel called in to work overnight security for planes or available to help as needed. Check.
If Terri Wachter, the Norfolk Regional Airport manager, was making a checklist, she had all these tasks and more covered Friday afternoon.
“We’re as prepared we we can be for what might happen,” Wachter said Friday afternoon from her office at the airport.
It’s a busy weekend in Norfolk and Northeast Nebraska, including the Lambrecht Auto Auction on Saturday and Sunday in Pierce, Norfolk’s Oktoberfest celebration, the annual Lions Club parade, Northeast Community College’s 40th anniversary celebration and the Riverpoint Arts Festival. Not to mention Friday night’s Foreigner concert.
Usually the airport keeps on hand about 8,000 to 10,000 gallons of jet fuel. This weekend, the airport started out with a 15,000-gallon tank and a 2,200 gallon tanker truck.
A fuel supplier in Omaha was also on alert, meaning thousands of gallons of additional fuel could be brought in, if needed, within a couple of hours, Wachter said.
“We’re full,” she said. “I joked to the guys that we’re so full it was leaking out (the top).”
Additional personnel were hired to watch the planes that landed Friday and Saturday that were staying in Norfolk for the Pierce auction or other activities around Norfolk.
Cars had been lined up with a rental company and local auto dealerships to handle the anticipated requests. Norfolk’s Checker Cab company also was available to shuttle guests from the airport.
On a typical day, the Norfolk Regional Airport probably has “about a half-dozen” planes land, Wachter said.
By mid-afternoon Friday, about a dozen had landed, with about six to eight containing passengers headed to the Pierce auction.
“Our fuel prices are low,” Wachter said. “Two (jets) dropped down just to buy fuel.”
And while activity was busier than usual Friday afternoon, it was expected to be the heaviest Friday evening and Saturday morning.
Wachter said Friday proved to be a fun day to be working at the airport. There were lots of calls from the public inquiring about rumors of celebrity sightings.
Some of the most repeated were about Jay Leno sightings and that John Travolta’s plane wanted to land at the airport, but the Norfolk runways weren’t long enough, so it was sent to Sioux City.
It wasn’t true, Watcher said.
“If John Travolta came in, I’d tuck him high under my wing and take him right to Pierce myself,” she said.
Along with a lot of phone calls, the airport also proved to be a popular place for those who just wanted to look around — in case one of those celebrity rumors proved true. Every few minutes, at least one or two vehicles would be circling the parking lot at the airport terminal.
Who could blame them? Outside of during the Great American Comedy Festival and concerts, few celebrities are seen in Norfolk.
Some representatives of the City of Norfolk also were on hand to greet visitors and answer questions or assist them.
Graison Frohberg, an airport line technician, said the band Foreigner was scheduled to leave from the Norfolk airport following its concert Friday evening.
Frohberg said he was not aware of Doc Severinsen being at the airport following Thursday’s concert and didn’t think he traveled in a plane.
“It’s a typical busy day,” he said Friday.
Original article: http://norfolkdailynews.com
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