Kelly says FAA is putting Stewart passengers at risk over radar issue

Congresswoman Sue Kelly Friday blasted the Federal Aviation Administration for prohibiting Stewart International Airport officials and controllers from transferring the current radar control system from the old air traffic control tower to the new tower until a new radar system becomes available later this year.

The new air traffic control tower was scheduled to come online at Stewart Friday. But due to software glitches, the FAA has told Stewart that a new radar system will not be forthcoming until at least August, perhaps longer.

While the current tower maintains a radar control system - Terminal Automated Radar Display and Information System (TARDIS) - that could be installed and used in the new tower on an interim basis, the FAA has thus far refused to allow airport officials or controllers permission to transfer the equipment, said Kelly.

Airport spokeswoman Tanya Vanasse said they are hopeful the FAA will move the equipment.

“We don’t feel that we have all the equipment that we need,” she said. “It seems, from what we can understand, and see and hear, that it’s really just a matter of moving the equipment from one location to another. So we’re hoping that the FAA will see clear to doing that for us.”

It’s not like the airport would be completely without radar if the TARDIS system is not switched over. Stewart has been operating, since it opened for commercial service in 1990, with the ASR-9 radar system.

In 1999, Kelly and other elected officials got the FAA to install the current TARDIS system at Stewart. "Now, over 6 years and a brand new tower later, Stewart officials and controllers are faced with the same bureaucratic obstacles to the installation of vital security equipment," Kelly said.

Mid-Hudson News Network