"Airport "Buffer" Zones"

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Airport "Buffer" Zones
By Anthony Welsch
KIMT-TV Ch 3 (CBS), Mason City (IA)

 
It's a common phobia: The fear of flying.

The last thing you need is a reminder of any accident before getting
on-board.

"Because I hear about that, my husband was telling me about it and I said,
you don't need to tell me this right before I get on the plane!" Livonne
Johnson of St. Louis said after arriving in Mason City.

It's an industry that experts say is relatively safe.

But when there's a mistake, everyone hears about it.

So local airport officials say they've got an Airport Emergency Reponse Plan
for just about anything.

"We put that into place in the full effect, the city gets involved, Clear
lake, many primary response volunteer firefighter departments," Eland
Conway, a supervisor at the Mason City Airport said.

They say they don't have a control tower-

But they do listen in on the radios in case the pilot says there's anything
weird going on.

"The sooner the pilot can let us know that there is something wrong, the
more prepared we can be," Conway said.

And there's a buffer zone around the runway that can is a last resort.

1000 extra feet of open space on each end of the run-way.

"The safety areas are designed to limit the damage to any aircraft during
landing and take-off and that's where the majority of the accidents happen,
within that safety area," Conway said.

And while most people don't know all that goes into their safety--- They say
they know they're pretty safe, but that doesn't mean they don't get nervous.

"I'm not crazy about the take-offs and the landings... but once I'm in the
air, then I'm ok," Johnson said.

And airport officials say odds are in her favor, she'll be just fine.

In Mason City, there are several different runways.  The longest is more
than a mile long.  The Mesaba pilots can land their aircraft on the shorter
runways with plenty of room to spare.

The last time a plane was forced off the runway at Mason City's Airport was
in March of 2004.  Nobody was injured.

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