CAA: GA News, "Mega-Millionaire Vows to Violate Hailey, Idaho, Airport Ban on Heavy Jets"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thursday, August 8 2002

Mega-Millionaire Vows to Violate Hailey, Idaho, Airport Ban on Heavy
Jets
The Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho


HAILEY, Idaho--The mega-millionaire president of a corporation whose
luxury jet has been denied landing rights at Friedman Memorial Airport
is threatening to defy the ban, risking legal action against the pilot
and the corporation.

As of Wednesday evening, the Boeing Business Jet owned by the
Tutor-Saliba Corporation of Sylmar, Calif., had not appeared at the
Hailey airport.

The BBJ, as it's called, is an advanced luxury version of the popular
Boeing 737 airliner. An estimated 50 BBJs, far larger than other
corporate jets, with plush working and living interiors, are being
operated by wealthy owners and corporations.

The president of Tutor-Saliba Corporation, which handles billions of
dollars in major heavy construction projects, is Ronald N. Tutor, a
part-time Ketchum resident. His jet was recently featured on a network
cable TV program about high-end luxury jets whose costs can range well
over $70 million.

The reason BBJ-size jets and larger are banned from Hailey's airport is
they exceed the 95,000-pound weight limit for the runway pavement.

The BBJ's takeoff weight can be as much as 171,000 pounds.

Friedman Memorial manager Rick Baird said large jets such as the 737
were banned beginning in 1991 after airport engineers discovered that
their repeated takeoffs and landings were damaging the runway.

To replace or repair a runway, Baird says, would mean closing the
airport for up to three months, thus depriving the Wood River Valley's
blue-ribbon tourist industry of air service.

In contrast to the new 96-foot-long Gulfstream-V jet that is flown into
Hailey, Baird points out that the BBJ is larger than other jets at the
field and can't be accommodated in usual parking spots. The BBJ is 110
feet long with a wingspan of 117 feet, according to Boeing's published
technical specifications.

A BBJ would have to be parked on the single active runway, requiring the
field to be closed to all traffic, Baird said.

It's not as though Tutor is totally dependent on the BBJ. The firm also
owns a smaller twin-engine Gulfstream-III jet, also a 500-mph luxury
aircraft but with less range than the BBJ.

The dispute with Tutor-Saliba has been a running shootout of words and
telephone calls since November, when Baird was first asked to make an
exception for the BBJ to operate 10 times a year out of Hailey. He
notified the company it would not be allowed to operate from the field,
citing the weight limits.

But on Monday, Tutor-Saliba's Santa Monica attorney, Patrick E. Bailey,
abruptly declared war on the airport's weight limits, notifying airport
attorney Barry J. Luboviski of Ketchum that,"Tutor-Saliba Corporation
will immediately begin operating its BBJ into and out of Friedman at the
approximate weight of 115,000 pounds."

On Wednesday, Luboviski fired back his own fax, notifying Bailey that a
letter dated Tuesday from the Federal Aviation Administration supporting
Friedman Memorial Airport"if it denied airport access to an aircraft
that exceeds the design weight of the runway pavement."

Wrote Luboviski:"The (airport) authority is more concerned with the
safety of the flying public and the residents of the Wood River Valley
than Mr. Tutor's personal convenience."

Blaine County Commission Chairwoman Mary Ann Mix, who also sits on the
airport authority, was unmistakably firm when she heard of
Tutor-Saliba's threat to defy the ban. She said the airport authority
would seek to have the BBJ pilot's license revoked, on grounds that he
was operating an aircraft under unsafe conditions.

Virtually all documents used by pilots for flight planning include
information about such things as airport runway weight restrictions,
with the notation that aircraft exceeding limits are required to obtain
permission before landing.

Until recently, some tourism interests in the Wood River Valley had been
trying to get the airport authority to relax restrictions so airlines
could operate larger jets from east and west coasts with direct non-stop
flights to Hailey.

But the coming of so-called regional jets -- smaller 50-passenger
aircraft that meets Hailey's operating criteria -- seems to have ended
pressures on the authority.

Tutor-Saliba is learning what others have learned -- Baird is a tough
enforcer of airport rules. Several years ago, he even prevented the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. John Shalikashvili, from
taking off in his military jet during the predawn noise abatement
curfew.


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