Meigs Field ist tot!!

[Gast Badmax]

Sicherlich eine schockierende Nachricht. Der Bürgermeister von Chicago hat wohl ohne Vorwarnung heute Nacht kurz vor 2 Uhr damit begonnen, die Startbahn zu zerstören. Die offiziellen Flugverkehrsstellen (FAA) ist empört, da es weder angekündigt noch abgesprochen war und resultiert aus langen Streitigkeiten um die Zukunft von Meigs Field. Angeblich will man einen Park draus machen und der Bürgermeister schiebt den Grund vor, er hätte zum Schutz (vermutlicher Kriegsgedanke) gehandelt - was lächerlich ist. Auf jeden Fall stellt sich die Frage, was mit den 16 übrig gebliebenen Flugzeugen passiert, die da noch rumstehen und erstmal nicht starten können und die allerwichtigste Frage: was geschieht mit uns Flightsimmern, wir brauchen einen neuen Basis-Airport!!!

 

 

 

 

Quelle: http://www.flusipilot.de

[TXLGuido]

Ich denke, spätestens am 2. April wird Meigs Field wieder eröffnet werden...

[Gast Lukas]

Das ist KEIN Aprilscherz!!!!! Der Flughafen wird wirklich platt gemacht. Wers nicht glaub kann sich ja davon ueberzeugen, z.B. auf der Website der Chicago Tribune

[Gast]

Das ist wirklich kein April-Scherz.

 

Diese Nachricht ging schon vor dem 01.04. durch airliners.net

[ANC]

HI !

 

Das ist wirklich schade !!!!! Ich hatte ein Erlebnis mit Meigs Field was ich wohl nie vergessen werde. Ich hatte das schon mal gepostet vor geraumer Zeit. Ich schreib es trotzdem nochmal nieder.

Ich war glaube ich 98 in den Staaten und wir sind in O´Hare zwischengelandet. Beim Anflug sind wir direkt an Meigsfield vorbegeflogen. Das war ziemlich weird. Ich war bestimmt schon ca. 1000 mal dort im MS Flight Sim gestartet und gelandet und kannte mich quasi gut aus. Und als ich so aus dem Fenster gucke denke ich so, hmm das kennst Du doch. War echt komisch. Nie im Leben da gewesen und trotzdem kam es mir verdammt vertraut vor. Echt schade das sie den Laden jetzt dicht machen wollen.

 

Viele Grüße aus Bremen

 

derJAn

" noch 3 Tage Schule und dann nie wieder, "nur" noch Abiturprüfung"

[Mapel]

Also wenn die da wirklich nen Park hinmachen wollen, so schön mit Natur und so *g*, dann find ich das ok. Allerdings sollte das wieder nur sone Sicherheitsmaßnahme sein, dann frag ich mich echt wovor die eigentlich keine Angst haben?

[Gast Onur_Air]

Wieso sind aber noch 16 Flugzeuge da???

[capsuel]

das ist auch im moment ein kleines problem.

 

aber es soll mit einer sondergenehmigung auf dem taxiway gestartet werden. wann es soweit ist, ist bis jetzt aber noch nicht bekannt.

 

Fate of 16 planes stranded at Meigs still up in the air

 

The future of 16 stranded aircraft remained in question Tuesday, while pilots, businesses and hospitals looked for aviation alternatives following an abrupt decision by Mayor Richard Daley to close Meigs Field so it eventually can be converted to a park.

 

Pilots of the stranded planes said they had been told a decision won't be made until at least midday Wednesday on whether a not-yet-bulldozed taxiway can be used to fly the planes out of downtown.

 

Daley, who had the Meigs runway destroyed in the dark of the night late Sunday and early Monday, has pledged the city will pay for trucking the planes elsewhere if they can't be flown out.

 

City survey crews Tuesday examined the taxiway to determine whether it's large enough for the stranded aircraft to use as an emergency runway, as well as whether the surface is flat enough and undamaged from the runway destruction.

 

FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said the city had not yet requested an airspace study to determine if the small planes could safely use the taxiway as a runway. She said such a review could take a few hours or a few days.

 

Cory said the planes might be issued ferry permits that would allow them to take off with only a pilot and minimal amount of fuel, making it easier for them to get into the air with a shorter runway.

 

"This is an emergency situation," she said. "There are no standards that exist for this situation because we don't have an airport" any longer.

 

Cory said questions about where the planes would go in the case of an emergency landing after takeoff would also have to be addressed, since there would be no runway to return to as would normally be the case.

 

A statement from Daley's office said it's the city's goal to "keep the planes intact" and that the city will reimburse pilots for hotel and other reasonable expenses incurred since the time they planned to leave the city.

 

An aviation source said he expects the planes will either be flown or trucked out by Wednesday or Thursday and questioned whether a formal FAA review is needed. "This taxiway is better than most general aviation runways," he said.

 

An air traffic controller familiar with the taxiway also said the planes are small enough that they would have no problems using the taxiway as a runway. "It's no problem for any of the planes that are there," he said.

 

Still, the stranded pilots continued to express frustration over not knowing when, or even if, they'll be allowed to fly out of Meigs.

 

"I just want to get out of Dodge," said Dr. George Shehl, a cardiologist from West Virginia who flew into Meigs late last week for a convention and had planned to leave Wednesday. "If they don't issue that waiver, I consider this an act of terrorism."

 

The mayor, who said he closed the airport to help protect downtown Chicago from a terrorist attack, may have been preparing for the move for a week or more.

 

Airport workers said they were told by the city to secretly count how many planes were at Meigs each night last week, as well as report the size of the planes. That may have been to help ensure that there were no larger private planes, such as a King Air business jet, stuck on the field when six giant "X" marks were carved into the runway using construction equipment.

 

The aviation community and some business leaders continued to express outrage about the airport's sudden closure.

 

"This airport is an icon," said Warren Morningstar, a spokesman for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. "This news is reverberating around the nation and the world. It has raised a real firestorm in the pilot community."

 

Morningstar said his office had been flooded with more than 1,000 phone calls and e-mails from pilots since news broke of Daley's runway destruction. He said many of the e-mails were copied to the mayor and Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

 

Even if the FAA approves use of the taxiway as a runway, Morningstar said, pilots would also need to get permission from their insurance companies before taking off from Meigs.

 

Other options being considered, if the taxiway isn't approved, include using a barge to float the planes to another airport near Lake Michigan, or removing their wings and transporting them by truck.

 

"There are options, although none of them are very good compared to being given some notice and taking off from where there used to be a runway," said David Vaughan, a spokesman for the Orlando-based company that provides fuel and other services to pilots using Meigs.

 

Vaughan said his company will attempt to find jobs at Signature Flight Support offices at O'Hare and Midway Airports for the roughly 20 employees it has at Meigs. Five air traffic controllers based at the airport are also starting to look for new jobs.

 

How quickly the airfield will be converted to a park is unknown. Daley and the Chicago Park District are interested in creating a nature preserve, similar to a $27 million proposal outlined in 1996.

 

Also Tuesday, the Suburban O'Hare Commission, a group opposed to Daley's efforts to expand the city's largest airport, suggested the mayor broke the law by making alterations to an airport runway without getting the approval of the Illinois Department of Transportation.

 

A department spokesman said the law only deals with changes to runways that would affect safety at an operating airport.

 

"It does not deal with the closure of airports," said Mike Monseur, the spokesman. "It was never intended to force unwilling airport operators to continue operating."

 

Other government officials were hesitant to criticize the mayor's move.

 

Asked at a news conference Tuesday about the legality of Daley's closing Meigs Field, U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said with a broad smile, "I am not touching that with a 10-foot pole."

 

quelle: chicago tribune april 2, 2003

_________________

capsuel

 

[ Diese Nachricht wurde geändert von: capsuel am 2003-04-02 17:25 ]

[Alex330]

Manchmal haben sie schon ein seltsames Verständnis von dem was recht/Recht ist, drüben in den Staaten.

 

Aber auch wenn man es nüchtern betrachtet, ohne die rosarote Flightsim-Brille (was zugegebenermaßen schwierig ist), ist das Ganze doch beinahe so etwas wie ein krimineller Akt. Geradezu unglaublich ist es, dass die Flugzeugbesitzer keine Nachricht bekamen, ihre Flugzeuge auszufliegen.

 

Gruß

Alex

[LEJ_Flyer]

Ich kann das auch nicht verstehen, dass man dazu eine Nacht-und-Nebel-Aktion nutzt. Hatte man Angst, dass doch zuviel Widerstand gegen eine geordnete Schließung entstehen würde.

Auch die in den US-Medien abgedruckten Begründungen sind eher nicht nachvollziehbar.

Naja wie schon gesagt, die Amis haben schon eine interessante Rechtsaufassung in letzter Zeit entwickelt !

Nun muss man sich auch noch im Flugsimulator einen neuen Platz suchen.

[Gast Onur_Air]

Bill Gates hätte es doch kaufen können. Der könnte dann daraus den "official Microsoft Airport" machen können. Selber gestalten und so exklusiv für FS.