Airport anarchy

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 16, 2000 - AS

The feds have sprung a series of problematic regulations on new owners

of their old airports. Transport Canada defends its actions.

By JEFF NAGEL

SAFETY CONCERNS and
‘hot a desire to complicate life
for local airports is behind
new regulation changes, says
a top Transport Canada offi-
cial,

A requirement for increased

airport firefighting service could .

be in effect by fall, although air-
ports would have two years to
actually implement the change,
says Art Laflamme, the director-
general for civil aviation safety.

He’s been under fire from new
owners of airports — like the Ter-
race-Kitimat Airport Socicty that
took over this airport a year ago -
who were assured there would be
no return to costly airport fire
halls phased out two years ago.

“They’re reintroducing it a high
public cost without any demon-
stration of need,” said airport
manager Rick Reed.

He said it could cost this air-

port up to $500,000 in up-front —

costs and anywhere from $75,000

a year to $250,000 a year after
that, depending on the level of
service.

“We are going to be left with
. the tab for an expensive regulated
emergency intervention system,”
Reed said. ;

Laflamme said the proposed
regulation, which has not yet been
formally approved, would not be a
return to the full dedicated airport

. hall of years gone by.

Instead, airports would have
the option of using a more flexible
phased service.

Under that system, an airport
-worker — who performs other du-
ties but is trained for firefighting —
would be designated as the first
intervenor.

In an emergency that person
:-would respond in a small vehicle
-- it could be simply a pickup

BACK IN SERVICE? Specialized airport fire trucks could be back on the job if federal requlations

requiring some level of on site firefighting go ahead. The truck on the left was sold by the city after
receiving them from Transport Canada. But the city still has the fire truck on the right.

i

truck outfitted to carry 650 litres

_ of fire suppressant.

A second intervenor — trained
firefighters in a larger truck cap-
able of carrying at least 2,400 li-
ires — would be required to arrive,
likely from the Terrace fire de-
partment, within 20 minutes.

The city sold off one of the two
airport fire trucks it inherited from
Transport Canada last year. It still
has the other one.

“We're looking at various ways
to ease the pain,” Laflamme said.
“Based on the latest changes, we
estimate the costs are much
reduced.”

_ Reed and others argue studies
show mest crashes happen away
from the airport where airport fire-

HOW ABOUT A REFUND? The Terrace Kitimat Airport Society

concluded its deal with Transport Canada last April to take over

the airport. At that time society members didn’t know Ottawa
would soon start changing a number of critical regulations,

fighters couldn’t arrive in time to
make a difference.

“An aircraft that is on fire
takes anywhere from a minute to
a minute and a half for the entire
Structure to be consumed,” Reed
says,

“We think it’s a poor safety in-
vestment,” he said, adding -there’s
no evidence public confidence in
air travel has sagged since on-site
firefighting was abandoned at
smaller airports.

The risks may be small.

But Laflamme says it’s the
government’s duty to weigh the
risk and costs of providing service
against the public’s willingness to
accept those risks and costs.

“Are people suggesting that if
there’s a wreck at the end of a
runway smouldering and burning
that we just leave it, there?” -he
asked. “T don’t think the public is
willing to accept that we don’t re-
spond to emergencies at airports
period.”

Reed contends that if Ottawa is
changing the rules now on new
airport owners it should help pay
the costs of providing the new
level of service.

“So far there’s been no indica-
tion from the department whether
they intend to fund any of this in
whole or in part,” Reed said.

Another contentious regulation
would put tighter restrictions on
how airline pilots approach some

airports, Terrace included, in bad
weather,

If reported visibility on the
ground is below a set minimum,
pilots would be banned from ap-
proaching.

That would bar them from fly-
ing over the airport and tooking
for a break in clouds through
which to descend. The tule is pre-
dicted to at least double the cur-
rent number of missed approaches
at the Terrace airport.

The Transport Canada commit-
tee overseeing thal change
tesumes its deliberations this
week,

Laflamme says the regulation
is intended to keep airline pilots
from taking undue risks in. margin-
al conditions.

“What -we. want to achieve -is .
something. wo can.enforce .where

operators don’t: feel they have to
go down to unsafe levels because
they feel their competitor might
be doing so,” Laflamme said, “At
the same time we don’t want to
have the level so high that it has
a significant impact on operations
at airports,”

“We've lost a few aircraft in
very poor weather conditions,” he
added. “We dan’t want pilots pet-
ting themseives into what we feel
is a dangerous situalion”.

He said the currrent proposal is
reduced from what was originally
proposed.

Airport picks low-budget
satellite landing system

‘THE SOCIETY running the
‘airport has chosen low-

flights each year
scrubbed because of bad

are

lots information on their
position as they climb up

cause it would have cost
around $1.1 million.

cost yet state of the art
‘technology to improve the
chances of aircraft lending
in inclement weather.

What it wants is for

federal officials to approve
a new landing approach
path involving global posi-
tioning system (GPS)
equipment.
- GPS equipment in air-
craft receive signals from
orbiting satellites, telling
pilots exactly where they
ate as they approach the
airport, says manager Rick
Reed of the Terrace-Kiti-
mat Airport Society.

In doing so, the current
Tegulations requiring pilots
_to have visual contact with
the runway at 527 above
the ground and two miles
aut could be lowered to
250 feet, and half a mile
of visibility he said.

Designing the new ap-
proach would cost approx-
imately $30,000 and the
society has asked for a

t

wane eas

Airline doubts GPS landing system

‘ THE ONLY remaining
“scheduled airline serving
_ the city doubts if develop-
“ing a new landing pattern
Lusing satellite technology
Will improve the landing

“record here much during.

times of bad weather: -

Rick Reed

federal grant of $27,500 to
defray the expense,

GPS is attractive as it
doesn’t require any new
equipment at the airport.
As well, GPS receivers are
slowly being added by
Major air carriers across
the country.

Right now, an estimat-
ed five per cent of sched-
uled major air carrier

Dean Brawn of Cana-
dian Regional Airlines
says its technical people
believe it will take the
next generation of Global
Positioning System (GPS)
technology . before the

chances of landing in bad:

weather,

Using the figure of
1,950 scheduled flights a
year, airport officials es-
timate they could reduce

the missed landings to two.

per cent with an approved
GPS approach.

That would go a long
way to eliminating the air-
port’s reputation as being
unreliable because of bad
weather.

Reed said the. result
could be just 25 missed
flights each year.

“It is indeed cost effec-
tive,” said Reed of the ex-
penditure required to have
a GPS approach approved.

The one wrinkle in the
plan is that while a GPS
approach would guide pi-
lots into the airport at a
lower altitude, there is no
provision for a missed ap-
proach.

That’s because there
would be no ground-based
GPS equipment giving pi-

weather will get better.
“The bottom line is that
what is out there now,
won’t help in this case,”
said Brawn.
As it is, none of Cana-

dian Regional’s 29 F-28
aircraft, the type it tses to

if they can't make visual
contact with the runway.

In the absence of that
kind of equipment, the rate
of climb needed to clear
surrounding terrain would
be too steep and uncom-
fortable for passengers,
said Reed.

To rectify that, the so-
ciety suggests pilots could
then revert back to the
current technology in usc
which does give them po-
sitioning information as
they leave the area.

“This would then be a
mix of technology and
Transport Canada would
need to gives its appro-
val,” said Reed.

“The mixture of the lwo
is not conventional.”

The idea of using GPS
equipment sprang from a
study commissioned by the
sociely last spring.

An alternative Instru-
ment Landing System
(ILS) was rejected be-

fly to Terrace, have any
type of GPS equipment on
board.

And even if some did, it
would be imposssible to
schedule them in such a
way they would be used
exclusively on this run,

But Reed said the air-
port continues to work on

other improvements to
make it easier to land
here.

An approach lighting
system is being installed
this spring at a cost. of
$130,000.

The airport is also
brightening its runway
edge lighting to high in-
tensity bulbs.

Centreline
however, al

lighting,
a cost of

$500,000, isn’t presently

being considered.

One other option that
will be studied further
would be moving the lo-

calizer equipment now in: -

use from. beside the run-
way to south of it.

That would mean pilots
could descend for a
straight. in approach in-

stead of now coming in to.

the right of the runway and
then making visual contact
with the runway.

’S value

said Brawn.

He did acknowledge
that refits of existing air-
craft or the purchases of

‘new ones will some day

make on board GPS land-
ing equipment more readi-
ly available.

CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD

The Mail Bag

Charlie deserved more

Dear Sir:

A very displeasing event took place at Mills
Memorial Hospital last May, regarding Charlie
Abou. Charlie Abou was a retired hunting guide,
very much a northern historical person who lived
all his life in northern B.C., residing in the Tahltan
village of Iskut, where he passed away at age 78
on Aug. 10, 1999,

Previous to his retirement he worked for Tommy
and Marion Walker wha owned a big game guiding
outfit in Spatsizi Park, He also played in movies
by the wildlife film maker, Gordon Eastman.

Charlie Abou had been sent down from Iskut by
a nurse at the medical clinic there. He had a blad-
der problem, was unable to urinate and was in a lot
of pain.

Upon arriving in Terrace, he was treated at the
hospital. ’'m not sure of all the attention he re-
ceived, but he was attended to by a doctor wha
drained his bladder and was then told to go back to
his hotel room where he was slaying with his wife.

My wife and I went to see him when he got to
the motel. He said, “Partner, I’m not tao good, pro-
blems with my water, lots of pain.” Shortly after
going home, Charlie’s wife phoned, “George, we
have big problems. Charlie is in a lot of pain and
can’t go to the wash room again.”

We immediately took him back to the hospital,
used a wheel chair to take him through the Emer-
gency entrance. We checked with the nurse. A sta-
tement given to us was he had previously been
seen by a doctor to drain him,

I told her he needed to see a doctor right now as
he couldn't urinate and was in a lot of pain. I real-
ized it was a very busy evening but told her we
would not leave until he saw a doctor. After one to
two hours, a doctor came to see Charlie.

I explained Charlie’s problem, then went into
the examining area with Charlie and his wife. The
doctor examined him and said that Charlie has a
great problem and must be admitted to hospital. He
had been sent back to the motel earlier in the day
afler draining. The doctor said he'd see about pet-
ting him a bed so after an hour or two and seeing
Charlie was getting some attention, I went home.

The next day I checked with the family and was
told Charlie was to have an operation so { did not
go back to the hospital until evening. When I got
there, was told Charlie was in a room in the psych
ward, down in the basement.

I found Charlie sitting on the edge of his bed. |
got very angry and disgusted with what I exper-
ienced.

Charlie’s bed sheets were covered with blood,
urine and stains of stool. His pyjamas were lying
on the floor soaked with same. He said to me right
away. “Partner, | want out of here, too cold, want
to go home.”

[ looked over-at the nurses, they. were.just site,.
ting there not paying attention. I could. hear: what..
they were talking about, nothing to do with work. I
went to the nursing station and ‘told the nurses’:

_ about Charlie's bed condition. Had a look in his

washroom, he’d tried to go by himself and made a
big mess in there.

The nurses replied,.“We'll get to him,” and car-
tied on with conversation. [ stayed another half
hour or so, no attempt was made while I was there
iy clean up the mess.

A few days: later Charlie was discharged and
sent back to Iskut.

I hope this letter will help to bring to attention
to what misery was caused by not admitting an el-
derly person to the hospital in the first instance and
what occurred by the shortage of beds on the main
ward,

George Chinn, Terrace, B.C.

Recycling needed
Dear Sir:

Do you know how much garbage Canada gener-
ates alone? I am guessing you don't. Alone in Ca-
nada 2.4 million tons of garbage is created yearly.
Out of that 2.4 million tons only seven per cent is
recycled,

J am a concerned student that is worried for our
community. I believe at one point in time almost
everything in Terrace could be recycled, from pop
cans to tin cans, news paper to used writing paper,
ete.

But then the city decided the expenses were too
costly. If you look around Terrace now, you can
only find places that will recycle pop/beer bottles
and cans, But there are 30 many solutions that we
could come up with.

If anyone really cared about this town, I’m pret-
ty sure that an emply place some where could be
used, And an old truck could be used. Also it could
create jobs, and help people get on their feet.

Personally, I think that Terrace is turning in a
dump. What ever happened to Beautiful British
Columbia? It doesn’t look so beautiful now, does
it?
‘Laura Jean Galema, Terrace, B.C,

Not happy _

Dear Sir:
I am insulted by your “Best of Terrace 2” ques-
tionnaire, Question number 4, “Gest reason to be

' thankful you live-in Terrace and not in Kitimat” is i

very inappropriate.

Instilling a sense of community pride is a won-
derful thing, but my admiration wanes when it's
done at another community's expense, Was that
really necessary? We teach our schoolchildren the
to demean others to feel superior is wrong. L.Jg aii
can’t be the only one who sees a parallel, here

Another point concerns our collective youth.
We all know that the teenagers of Terrace and Ki-
timat have trouble getting along. We are surprised
al the animosity, appalled by the sometime vio-
lence, And now your newspaper seems to be con-
tributing to this division between our communities.

I feel an apology to Kitimat residents is in order.

Amanda Davidson, Terrace, B.C.

“yo