| Boston.com | - |
BOSTON
(AP) - The air traffic control towers at five Massachusetts airports
will soon be closed as part of massive budget-cutting at the Federal
Aviation Administration.
FAA to close 149 air traffic towers under cuts
CHICAGO - The
Federal Aviation Administration says it will close 149 air traffic
control towers at small airports around the country because of federal
budget cuts.
Four regional airports are affected.Trenton-Mercer Airport in Ewing, Mercer County, was on the FAA's hit list, released Friday. It will close by April 7.
The airport had recently announced that Frontier, its main carrier, would add five new destinations next month.
In Pennsylvania, the control towers at three small airports will go dark: Capital City Airport in Harrisburg, Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe and Lancaster Airport in Lancaster.
The FAA says the closures will not force the shutdown of any airports. But they will require pilots using them to coordinate takeoffs and landings over a shared radio frequency with no help from ground controllers. That's something they are trained to do, but airport directors have raised concerns about the potential impact on safety.
The FAA is being forced to trim $637 million for the rest of the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. The changes are part of the across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration, which went into effect March 1.
In an accompanying statement, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta says the agency will take steps to ensure safe operations at the affected airports.
end quote from Google and:
FAA to close 149 air traffic towers under cuts
So, I guess what this might mean for safety conscious Air Passenger is that you might want to ask when you buy a ticket on an airline if there is a control tower where you are landing in case someone (like a private pilot) has his radio off when landing at a non-control tower airport. If a private pilot thought that there wasn't a control tower at either his take-off or landing site he might not turn his or her radio on or have it on the wrong frequency at the landing airport.
5 Mass. airport towers to close in FAA cuts
AP /
March 22, 2013
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BOSTON (AP) — The air traffic control towers
at five Massachusetts airports will soon be closed as part of massive
budget-cutting at the Federal Aviation Administration.
The towers at airports in Beverly, New Bedford, Lawrence, Worcester and Norwood will shut down early next month.
The closures are among 149 at smaller airports
nationwide. The FAA was forced to cut $637 million from its budget as
part of $85 billion in across-the-board federal spending cuts.
None of the airports will shut down. Pilots
will instead coordinate takeoffs and landings among themselves over a
shared radio frequency, without help from ground controllers.
The five towers were among six facing the budget ax. The tower at a Westfield airport was spared.
The Massachusetts congressional delegation had sent a letter to the FAA to protest the closings.
end quote from Google and:
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