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