runway incursions at O-hare

[scubabri]

I found the part about closing Meigs and the GA traffic part interesting,

O'Hare Traffic Controllers Raise Concerns
1 hour, 37 minutes ago Add White House - AP Cabinet & State to My Yahoo!



CHICAGO - Air traffic controllers at O'Hare International Airport raised safety concerns following five runway mishaps, including one in which a jumbo jet going 100 mph burned out its brakes trying to avoid a small plane.



The controllers attribute the problems, which all occurred since April 1, to the relocation of a small-plane service center and the closure of an airport catering to small planes.


Small planes now must cross two runways to get to their take-off destination from the service center. Signature Flight Support moved in March to make room for a gate expansion, which has since been delayed.


"The decision to relocate Signature is an accident waiting to happen, and it will happen," said Craig Burzych, O'Hare president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.


The problems have been exacerbated, controllers say, by an influx of small planes at O'Hare after the March closure of Meigs Field, an airport along the city's lakefront used primarily by smaller corporate and private planes.


Mayor Richard Daley has said he was trying to protect the city against terrorism when he had construction crews tear up the airport's lone runway in March.


The Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) noted that since the end of March, general aviation traffic overall is down 7 percent at O'Hare. But a June 3 memo from FAA manager Tom Salaman warned that swift action was needed to remedy problems related to planes from Signature.


The airport had five mishaps in all of 2002.


In an incident earlier this week, a Cessna taxied without clearance onto an active runway that was free of traffic.


In May, a controller cleared a corporate jet to taxi out onto a runway that turned out to have a departing Lufthansa flight. The huge A-340 had to brake hard and abort takeoff.


A Chicago aviation department spokeswoman said the city doesn't see a problem, adding that the FAA approved Signature's move.


Still, to stem any problems, city trucks now escort private planes on the airfield.


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[A Squared]

Y'all need to be a little more selective in what you read.

I'm as disapointed by the Meigs closure as the next guy, but this article doesn't prove anything. Any attempt to draw any conclusions about the Meigs closure from the information presented in the article are misguided.

The controllers claim that the problems are exacerbated by the "influx" of small planes, but then the article goes on to say that the GA traffic has actually *decreased* since Meigs closed.....so, if anything, closing Meigs has helped the problem. OK, I know that is an absurd conclusion, but it's the only one supported by the info given. Certainly there's nothing there to suggest that the Meigs Closure has contributed to the problem.

 

[scubabri]

maybe you didn't read my comments, I found them to be interesting, I wasn't drawing any conclusions. I don't think that my comments mention anything about the closing of meigs causing the increase.. .did I?

I suppose I should just stop reading.

b

 

[A Squared]

OK, maybe I read too much into "I found them interesting", sorry...what were you trying to say then?

 

[EagleRJ]

The GA traffic from Meigs had to go somewhere, but I doubt much if it is going into O'Hare. If I remember right, the minimum landing fee there is something like $100. They just don't want GA landing there unless they really have to.

 

[Stiffler]

The problems have been exacerbated, controllers say, by an influx of small planes at O'Hare after the March closure of Meigs Field, an airport along the city's lakefront used primarily by smaller corporate and private planes.
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He, he. They said exacerbated.

 

[dmspilot00]

The article is contradictory, first they say the closure of Meigs exacerbated the problem, but then that traffic is actually down... ?

 

[jjbiv]

How about the two ground stops at MDW this week? In my mind, that's much better evidence of the need for Meigs or a suitable replacement (good luck!) I hope this isn't what the future holds; MDW can only take so much more before breaking (like ORD has.)

joe