Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2003 | 9:26 a.m.
North Las Vegas Airport neighbors came together Tuesday night to tell Clark County Aviation Department officials about their worries that increasing the number of flights at the airport will make their community less safe.
"It's all about safety," neighbor and meeting organizer Ed Gobel said. Holding his baby granddaughter, Gobel added: "It's about her."
Gobel said the number of accidents and near misses at the airport off North Rancho Drive at Decatur Boulevard has made it one of the most dangerous airports in the country.
According to National Transportation Safety Board records, there have been 32 accidents involving planes, helicopters and balloons at or near the airport during the last five years. Those accidents included five fatal crashes in which seven people died.
A recent Federal Aviation Administration report showed North Las Vegas Airport had more close calls on its runways between 1999 and 2002 than any other airport except Los Angeles International.
To make the airport safer Gobel called for reducing the number of takeoffs and landings to 65,000, limiting the hours the airport is open and eliminating or minimizing training flights out of the airport.
Linda Young said she feels like every plane going to the airport flies over her house. Echoing the concern expressed by some others at the meeting, Young said she worries that some day a plane will crash into her home.
"One of these days one of those planes isn't going to make it," Young said.
Aviation Department officials at the meeting wouldn't say whether some of the neighbors' concerns could be addressed. William Klein, assistant director of aviation, airside operations, told the audience of about 100 neighbors and pilots he was there only to note their concerns and report them to Aviation Department officials.
The North Las Vegas Airport is the second busiest in the state, averaging about 220,000 takeoffs and landings in each of the last three years. The number of flights is projected to increase by as much as 50,000 a year after an instrument landing system, which helps pilots land in bad weather, is installed within the next six to eight months. The system is expected to primarily be used for training.
The airport is primarily used by owners of small private planes, flight schools and sightseeing tours.
The airport has caught headlines with a number of accidents in recent years.
This year's accidents have included an April 4 crash about eight miles from the airport in which a flight instructor and student died and a Sept. 23 accident in which two pilots were injured when their planes collided on the runway.
County Aviation Director Randy Walker didn't attend the Tuesday night meeting, but earlier Tuesday he said the FAA, not the county, is the only agency with the power to limit the number of flights or hours of operation at the airport.
But Gobel is convinced the county can do something to limit the air traffic. He said that if the county won't act, he'll seek state legislation to force the changes.
State Sen. Ray Shaffer, R-North Las Vegas, has proposed legislation in the past that would limit flights and last month said he may do so again.
Gobel said the meeting was a chance for neighbors to get their concerns heard by the county officials. He said there may be another public meeting next month depending on the response to concerns expressed at the meeting.
Dan Markoff, a lawyer, pilot and neighbor of the airport who spoke during the meeting, said there is too much air traffic. Markoff said it is the government's fault there are problems with airport neighbors because the government allowed residential development near the airport.
"What we have here is a real mess," he said. "Government creates the problem and then government augments the problem."
Robert Evans said he knew there was an airport in his neighborhood when he moved in five years ago, but he said since then the noise has grown worse.
Evans said sometimes he is awakened at midnight by loud plane engines.
"I'm thinking, 'My God, there's a plane landing on my roof,' " Evans said. "But it's the testing of the airplane engines on the north part of the airport."
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