Crash near NLV Airport revives residents’ fears

By Timothy Pratt

Tuesday, April 1, 2003 | 11:12 a.m.

Sunday night's plane crash near North Las Vegas Airport wasn't the first in the area and neighbors fear it won't be the last. They're worried that it won't be long before someone on the ground is killed by an aircraft.

The accident has some officials again speaking of the need to restrict development near the airport and is drawing attention to a growth issue that has also caused controversy for the areas around McCarran International Airport: the compatibility of housing and airports.

About 8:30 p.m. Sunday, a small, single-engine plane cartwheeled and landed in a ditch in front of the Rancho Mesa apartments at 2881 N. Rancho Drive. The plane apparently had developed engine problems and the pilot had tried to land on the busy roadway, said Donn Walker, spokesman for the Western regional office of the Federal Aviation Administration.

The only occupant of the plane, Joseph Randall Edwards, was listed in fair condition Monday afternoon at University Medical Center, officials said.

Mardean Robinson, 50, said she was sitting on a bench having a beer with family and friends when Edwards' Beechcraft Bonanza clipped a fence about 10 feet from where she sat and flipped over into the ditch.

"I thought it was a terrorist attack, like New York City all over again," she said. "We just ran like hell."

Paul Von Rueden -- who lives nearby and is president of the Northwest Area Residents Association, a group that has monitored area concerns about the airport -- said that growing neighborhoods and growing numbers of flights in and out of North Las Vegas are a bad mix.

National Transportation Safety Board records available on the Internet show that 21 crashes have occurred since 1999 in North Las Vegas, with eight in 2002. There have been five fatalities during the same period. There also have been other aircraft mishaps related to the airport that occurred within the boundaries of the city of Las Vegas.

Some of the mishaps were at North Las Vegas Airport, but several of the crashes were in the neighborhoods around the airport.

Several examples from the National Transportation Safety Board files:

Airport critics and advocates agree that there is no way to eliminate accidents at and around a busy airport, particularly one such as North Las Vegas, which is used mainly by private pilots, some of whom are still learning to fly.

North Las Vegas Airport also could get busier in the coming months. It had about 220,000 takeoffs last year, second only to McCarran statewide. A proposed system to train pilots how to land in bad weather could bring the total up to about 270,000 if approved in the coming months, according to a draft FAA report prepared late last year.

"Takeoffs have increased over the years and as Las Vegas and North Las Vegas grow, they will continue to go up," Debbie Millett, an airport spokeswoman, said.

But the airport, which opened in 1941, came before much of the valley's growth, and only local governments can control development, she said.

"It's one of those things where the airport was there first and the homes have been built up," Millett said.

"We want compatible use, but the city keeps approving more homes. ... We would love it if there was a safety zone with no residents around the airport, but we can't control that," she said.

Stephanie Smith, councilwoman for Ward 3, which includes the site of the crash, said she has worked hard to oppose development around the airport since she took office in 1997.

"I have always voted against high-density housing near the airport," she said. "It's not like we can shut the airport down or get rid of the houses that are already there.

"All we can do is control future development."

But Von Rueden said the airport should consider buying properties and demolishing them, just as McCarran has done.

He said he has suggested as much to North Las Vegas Airport Manager Duane Busch in a meeting between members of the association and airport officials.

"They all looked at each other as if I had spoken in favor of Iraq," he said.

"We're not in the business of real estate, but of running airports," Millett said.

She also noted that most of the accidents involving planes from North Las Vegas Airport haven't been serious.

"A lot of these ... have been the equivalent of fender benders," she said.

In addition, the airport itself has had little to do with the accidents, she added.

"If you look at the accidents, at no time was it something the airport did or didn't do," she said.

That's little consolation to neighbors, however.

Johnny Austin was never convinced he was safe in the six years he lived at the Rancho Mesa apartments and moved into a new apartment on Lone Mountain Road and Simmons Street last Friday.

"We moved just in time," the 35-year-old father of four said. "We have young kids and we wouldn't want anything to happen to them."

Robinson, who was still talking about the crash with neighbors outside her house Monday evening, wondered what was next.

"This is just too close to the airport," she said.

"What's keeping them planes from falling on our houses?"