Aviation community raises concern over pilot notifications at Airport

Calling it “an ill-advised action that potentially puts lives at risk,” local pilots criticized the East Hampton Town Board for closing the Town of East Hampton Airport runways to restripe them without the issuance of a Notice to Air Missions known as a NOTAM by which the FAA informs the aviation community that they will be closed prior to doing so.

Stated one pilot, Elliott Meisel, Esq., “Because it has doggedly pursued its efforts to assume total control of the airport by converting it to a `private airport’ and failed to comply with a court injunction during pending litigation, the East Hampton Town Board now finds itself in the position of not having the authority to employ the NOTAM system and is therefore forced to rely on volunteer local pilots with hand held radios or the local automated weather reporting system to advise approaching aircraft that they cannot land at East Hampton regardless of how far they may have traveled or how low on fuel they may be.

The latest example

“The Town’s action is only the latest example of the jeopardy it has put aviators and local residents in by failing to clearly re-establish the airport as a “public use” airport with all of the regulatory protection that would provide pending the outcome of the litigation. The current ambiguous status of the airport violates the first principle of aviation which is to insure the safety of all those in the air and on the land,” he continued.

Mr. Meisel observed that the Town’s previous actions including the cancellation of federal instrument approach procedures and the adoption of private approach procedures which were difficult to access are also creating an unacceptable risk to both those in the air and on land. The FAA has since permitted restoration of those procedures in the interest of safety, declaring the airport a “public” aviation facility, suggesting that an appeal to the FAA to provide a NOTAM pertaining to the runway closure might have been forthcoming had it been pursued.

Seeking to address concerns

“The East End aviation community has presented the Town a comprehensive list of operational procedures that would address many of the quality-of-life concerns that have been raised over time. To date, the response has been a combination of silence and actions that impair operational safety. It is in no one’s interest to neglect that imperative regardless of the ultimate configuration and legal status of the airport,” he stated.

In the meantime, Mr. Meisel stated that the local aviation community will continue to make every effort to alert the Town Board to safety issues if kept apprised of its proposed actions and to use a variety of communication platforms available to it to prevent safety being eroded under any condition those actions may pose.