CAA: GA News, "Editorial: Safety first at airport"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@cwnet.com>]

Tuesday, May 23, 2000

Editorial: Safety first at airport
The Toledo (OH) Blade


The safety record of all the fixed-base operators at Toledo Express Airport
should be of paramount concern to the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority
specifically and the public in general.

This is especially true when it comes to how aircraft are maintained and how
fuel is stored. Failing to follow regulations to the letter in either of
those areas could lead to a disaster that would be less an accident and more
like negligence.

That's why it is perfectly proper for Port Authority board member Jerry
Chabler to closely question the operation of Grand Aire Express, the cargo
charter air service.

Mr. Chabler wondered whether Grand Aire might have violated its airport
lease when it incurred a Federal Aviation Administration fine for failure to
properly conduct safety tests last year after an engine replacement on one
of its aircraft. Mr. Chabler also questioned whether the operator is
illegally using a certain type of fuel tank without a permit.

A Grand Aire official insists that the safety tests on the aircraft were
performed in a timely manner and the company had merely failed to properly
document its work. Still, the tests were redone. While the same Grand Aire
official called the $195,000 fine the equivalent of "a traffic ticket," the
FAA is taking it more seriously, with a spokesman declaring the action is
"not trivial by any means."

As for the fuel storage question, no one seems to know who approved allowing
Grand Aire to use single-lined fuel tanks without containment dikes rather
than safer double-lined tanks. State officials and James Hartung, Port
Authority president, all downplay any concern that the arrangement might be
improper, unsafe, or both, excusing the lapse because Grand Aire plans to
update the facility soon.

In the meantime, it's up to conscientious board members like Mr. Chabler to
continue to ask detailed questions about how airport operations are run, or
allowed to be run, by the port authority.

It is unseemly and inappropriate for board chairman Ray Medlin to threaten
to strip Mr. Chabler of his committee assignments for raising legitimate
inquiries. This is what members are supposed to do.

The port authority board has embroiled itself in a lot of well-publicized
trouble in the past for laxity and lack of attention to detail at Toledo
Express. We'd hate to see that happen again.


   Post your opinion on this story in the CAA General Aviation Forum
http://www.californiaaviation.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=DCConfID2

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