Concerned, but staying put

Leila Navidi

David Lerner, president of Clark County Aviation Association Inc., from left, pilot Kathleen Snaper and North Las Vegas residents Peggy and Mike Buneta and Donna Krenn attend a meeting about the North Las Vegas Airport on Wednesday at the Advent United Methodist Church. People who live in the fast-growing residential areas near the airport frequently complain about large and low-flying planes.

By Brian Eckhouse (contact)

Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Of the people shaken by the two airplane crashes near North Las Vegas Airport within six days last month, you might expect 86-year-old Mattie MacDavid to be among those seriously contemplating a move.

Leila Navidi

Founder Ed Gobel holds a binder with his group's name on the cover. He helped organize the meeting to give residents a chance to air their safety concerns after two small planes crashed last month into houses near the North Las Vegas Airport.

The second crash came within one-fifth of a mile of her two-story house on Paseo Del Mar.

But MacDavid shook it off.

The planes flying overhead, taking off and landing at the airport just over a mile from her home, had never bothered her before, and she says they still won’t.

“It was bad not to have any utilities after the second crash,” she said. “But I’m 86 years old. I’ve been through a lot of things.”

It would be easy to raise concerns about living near the airport. And indeed, about 50 people showed up this week at a community meeting at Advent United Methodist Church on North Rancho Drive to do just that, airing decades-old grievances about air traffic.

But MacDavid and other residents of North Las Vegas say they’ve long been mindful of — but not worried about — the airport, which began operations Dec. 7, 1941.

Concerns about the airport can be heard while walking through nearby neighborhoods. But the anxiety isn’t as high as what was expressed at the community meeting.

MacDavid says she hasn’t given any thought to moving, nor does she expect her longtime neighbors to move. She estimates 75 percent of the Charleston Heights subdivision residents have lived there at least as long as she has, 16 years.

Her neighbor down the road, 50-year-old Tammy Ebel, says she had not feared the planes landing and taking off at the general aviation airport until the second plane crash, within striking distance of her home, on Aug. 28.

She, too, has reconciled to it.

“It does worry me, but (no more) than driving around town,” Ebel said.

The pilot was killed in the Aug. 28 crash when his aircraft struck a two-story house on North Jones Boulevard. Three adults and two children were at home at the time of the crash but none was seriously injured.

Some North Las Vegas residents are more rattled by the crashes.

Ken Steppes said he enjoyed the spectacle of takeoff and landing — until he saw the fire that engulfed a home on Langdon Way on Aug. 22 after a plane crashed into it, killing the pilot and the couple living there.

“We thought it would never happen, planes falling out of the sky,” said his friend Craig Williams, 19.

Added Link Johnson, 44: “They’re just dropping from the sky now. It’s not good. There are kids around here, so people are living here in fear.”

Their prior indifference to the airport, the second-busiest in the state behind McCarran International, is not shared by those who attended Wednesday’s meeting. Clark County’s Aviation Department counted nearly 220,000 takeoffs and landings at North Las Vegas Airport in 2007, slightly more than a third of McCarran’s count.

Residents at the meeting complained about the growth of the airport over the past quarter-century. They’ve regularly chafed at the low altitude some planes fly at and the seeming frequency of larger aircraft flying through in recent years.

Resident Ed Gobel, who helped organize the meeting, continually stressed that the purpose was to find solutions to the problems — and not obsess on trying to close or relocate the airport.

“That’s not happening,” he said.

Indeed, the county has not submitted any application, or even indicated any desire, to relocate the airport, said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor.

The growth in the past 67-plus years around the airport has been staggering, David Lerner, president of Clark County Aviation Association Inc., noted in an interview.

Similar growth is occurring around Henderson Executive Airport, he said. “They’re building closer and closer to the airspace. So you’ll have the same issues that are here there.”

James Garcia, 43, moved into his North Las Vegas home near the airport in September 1998 but didn’t expect any problems. It’s the same story heard all across this city.

“The developer, Victory Encore, said (the airport) wouldn’t be used for planes bigger than single and double props,” he said, shaking his head.