Location of new airport control tower worries pilots and controllers

By Peter B. Brace
Independent Writer

Air traffic controllers and pilots working Nantucket’s airspace want the Airport Commission to reconsider its chosen site for the airport’s new control tower because of landing and take-off safety issues.
Nantucket’s air traffic controllers say the Airport Commission’s preferred location for the new tower – just south of the Snow Removal Equipment building on Bunker Road on the southeast side of the Nantucket Memorial Airport – is flawed because it limits their ability to monitor and guide flight activity on the runways.
 
“You’re span of control is 360 degrees and where as now it’s 60 degrees,” said Fred Holdgate, air traffic controller.
Runway 24, the airport’s main runway  southwest/northeast, intersects Runway 30, which runs southeast/northwest.

Holdgate’s issue about their span of control — the distance around controllers have to turn in their chairs to work the entire air field — is that having to spin full circle to monitor airplane activity instead a little to the left and a little to the right will put pilots and their passengers at greater risk.

“The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) is not pushing to have this tower, it’s the airport that’s pushing,” said Holdgate. “I represent the union employees and why would they want to put us in a worse spot to work traffic than we already are unless to save money. They took that site off because of future airport terminal expansion as one of their reasons.”

Design of the new control tower is about 50 percent complete and the airport plans to put out a request for building contractor proposals this spring and begin construction this summer. Its construction is way overdue because the existing 50-foot tower is replete with asbestos, a leaky roof and cramped working quarters with less than cutting edge controller equipment, said Airport Commission chairman Foley Vaughan.

The project, funded by the FAA, will cost $6 million and take about nine months to complete. The Airport Commission, which was originally considering putting the new tower where former annex building was between the main terminal and the Transportation Safety Administration building, removed that option and voted unanimously to build it south of the SRE building for several safety and visual reasons, said Vaughan.

“The new tower is substantially higher than the old tower and aesthetically speaking, we’ve tried very hard to maintain the [look] of the terminal,” said Vaughan. “Second, during construction, it would block the view to the south and more importantly that’s the only space for expansion on the field and we think putting the tower there ties the hands of future aircraft commissions.”

Vaughan added that the Airport Commission wants to create a space between the terminal and the TSA building for public viewing of airport activity.

“We want to create an old airport experience, which was that you could stand on the back of the bench and look over the fence and be a part of the airport,” he said. “What we want to do is have a viewing platform where the annex building was.”

At least one pilot disagrees with the commission’s choice of location for the new tower because of span of control safety issues.

Ocean Wings Air Charter Chief Pilot George Riethof commenting on Yack.com on a Jan. 15 discussion thread about the new tower said his major concern is planes crashing into each other on the ground, particularly in low visibility conditions such as fog and rain, and confusion over which taxiway to use to reach the ramp, the plane parking area in front of the terminal.
“…I think from a pilot's perspective, the proposed location is less safe than the FAA location, and I believe it increases the workload in the tower dramatically,” said Riethof. “The tower folks here are among the best anywhere, and they can handle it. But, you pick up a tower crew from other airports where they're traditionally not as experienced and competent, and I can anticipate real problems. I'm sure that workload increase will extend to a greater training period for new personnel and a higher dropout rate of new hires.”
All of the things being equal, Reithof believes this site is not as safe as the FAA’s preferred site where the annex building used to be.

Jake Allegrini, President of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association of Nantucket agrees with Reithof.
“The Bunker Road location puts controllers in a location that places key areas of the airport behind them,” said Allegrini. “This creates a situation in which critical operations cannot be monitored simultaneously as they are now, and would be at the FAA preferred site.”