Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2003 | 11:21 a.m.
On the same day North Las Vegas Airport neighbors were to meet with Clark County officials to complain about increased air traffic and the potentially unsafe conditions it creates at the airport, two pilots were injured when their planes collided on a runway.
"This shows that there's unsafe things happening there," airport neighbor Ed Gobel said about the accident that left one pilot in fair condition and another with moderate injuries.
Gobel said he understood why airport officials were too busy dealing with the crash to meet with neighbors Tuesday night, and hoped the meeting will be rescheduled for sometime soon.
State Sen. Raymond Shaffer, R-North Las Vegas, who was also planning to attend the Tuesday meeting, said the accident shows why changes are needed at the airport.
Shaffer, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, proposed a law during this year's legislative session that would have reduced the number of takeoffs and landings at the airport. The senator said he might do so again unless county officials move to reduce traffic at the airport before the next session.
"There's a good example of why we had to meet tonight in the middle of the runway," Shaffer said.
According to officials, the fiery collision occurred about 1 p.m. at the intersection of two of the airport's three runways when when one plane was landing and the other was preparing to take off, sending a plume of black smoke over the airport.
Both pilots were treated for moderate injuries at University Medical Center and released Tuesday night, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Debbie Millett, spokeswoman for the Clark County Department of Aviation, said a 1994 Piper Malibu Mirage piloted by Samuel J. Johnson of Las Vegas and a Piper Arrow crashed where two of the airport's three runways intersect. Neither pilot had any passengers, she said.
After impact, "there was a fire," Millett said, but it wasn't clear if both planes burned.
"This was not a midair spectacular," she said while standing on an observation deck overlooking the runways. One plane was crushed after flipping over. The other was missing a propellor and charred metal was visible on its nose.
Firefighters sprayed foam onto the wreckage to put the fire out.
Investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board, which is responsible for accidents involving aircraft, are trying to determine the cause of the collision. Millett said a team arrived Tuesday night.
"I don't know if it was pilot error or tower error," said Millett, who did not have a timeline for the investigation.
After the collision Tuesday, only one runway at North Las Vegas Airport remained open, so a number of flights had to be canceled.
Marie Beeston and Frederick Dhiman of England should have been flying over the Grand Canyon Tuesday afternoon, but instead they were sitting in the airport waiting for a shuttle to take them back to their hotel.
"They said there had been some planes that were tangled up and there would be a delay, and they said something about an injury," Beeston said. Then officials announced that the flight was canceled.
Beeston had planned the Grand Canyon observation flight for her fiance as a "birthday treat," Dhiman said.
"I am very disappointed," he said.
Enrique and Josune Gutierrez of Spain, who were in Las Vegas on their honeymoon, were supposed to be on the same flight. But they took the cancellation in stride.
"There will be another time," Enrique Gutierrez said.
No runway collisions have occurred at the North Las Vegas Airport in the past four years, despite hundreds of thousands of takeoffs and landings, according to the county aviation department.
The airport is the second busiest in the state, with an average of 600 takeoffs and landings each day. This year, through the end of July, there have been 123,216 takeoffs and landings. Last year there were 218,296, Millett said.
However, the airport has had a high number of near-collisions in the past four years. As of Aug. 1, 34 near-collisions have occurred, tying Los Angeles International Airport for the most in the country.
A number of airplane crashes at and near the North Las Vegas Airport has also occurred in recent years, including eight in 2002 and one earlier this year in which a flight instructor and student died.
Millett said the county tries its best to keep the airport and the neighborhoods around the airport safe.
"We have taken many steps to ensure the safety of North Las Vegas Airport," she said. That includes "upgrading ... the lighting, signage, doing everything we can to ensure that the pilots are able to use the airport safely."
Gobel, who lives about a half-mile from the airport, said the airport would be safer if the number of takeoffs and landings were limited to 65,000 a year.
Because of differences with the way the number of takeoffs and landings are reported, Gobel said he believes there are only about 73,000 takeoffs and landings a year at the airport, not the almost 220,000 officials said there were.
Gobel said neighbors are also worried that some planes fly too low over homes when approaching the airport.
Some officials have criticized the neighbors for complaining about problems they should have known existed when they moved into a home near an airport, but Gobel says it's the increase in air traffic that's really sparked neighbors' complaints.
He said the airport is now more than three times busier than county officials said it would be in a 1987 report.
Shaffer said the problem is that the North Las Vegas was never intended to be so busy.
"This airport wasn't constructed to be a major airport. It's confined by major roads and development around it," Shaffer said. "Yes, the airport was there first. But the airport has enlarged."
Officials have said that's because it was needed to serve the growing population here and the increased number of private pilots and their aircraft.
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