Provo officials pushing for radar at airport

Armed with new evidence, Provo officials are making a big push for a radar system at Provo Municipal Airport.

First, though, the city and airport leaders will have to convince the Federal Aviation Administration the radar system is a much-needed improvement.

While it's unclear whether the requested radar system could have prevented last week's plane crash that claimed the lives of three Utah County men, the urgency for the system had been building long before the accident.

Airport Manager Steve Gleason, who has been one of the loudest voices in the effort to gain the system, declined to talk this week about the issue.

"Pending the FAA's investigation, it would be very inappropriate for me to comment on that," Gleason said.

However, Gleason addressed the subject at a meeting of the Utah Air Travel Commission last Wednesday, one day prior to the fatal crash.

At that meeting, Gleason said the Provo area is in a "radar shadow" that impacts operations not only at Provo Municipal but also at Salt Lake International. And as the airport continues its rapid growth, with a projected 175,000 operations for the year ending June 30, up from an estimated 147,000 during the year before, the problem is only going to grow.

According to an FAA Web site, that shadow prevents any object below 8,000 feet in the Provo area from being seen on radar systems in Salt Lake County, limiting the service Provo Municipal can provide.

"As our jet traffic continues to increase, as it has been ... there are going to be delays (in service)," Gleason said last week.

The installation of a radar system at Provo Municipal Airport has been ongoing battle. In 2001, Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, pushed for a temporary radar system, which was used at Provo Municipal during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, to be left there until a permanent radar facility was installed.

The campaign to keep the radar in Provo after the Games was unsuccessful.

In 2002, committee members of the FAA's National Airspace Redesign initiative suggested a radar system be installed at Provo Municipal to improve coverage for aircraft approaching Salt Lake International Airport from the southwest and also as a benefit for the host airport.

Provo Mayor Lewis Billings said the problem with getting a radar system for Provo is one of making sure decision-makers have the proper information.

"I think the main problem is the FAA feels like they have higher priorities, and that concerns us, because we believe if they were working with the same data that we are, if they recognized the same data that we recognize, then they would see us scoring higher," Billings said. "There is still a belief in Washington and some of the FAA statisticians' minds that our activity here is much lower than it is."

Billings said he hopes that indisputable data gathered by the airport's control tower will help Provo's case.

The tower, completed in fall of 2004, was not manned until July 1 last year because of bureaucratic confusion over how to fund the workers' salaries. But at the end of this month, when the tower has collected a full year of solid data, Billings said city and airport officials will have more ammunition in their fight for radar.

"It's a process of trying to create awareness, making the data that we do have very substantial and being able to assure (the FAA) that we're not just saying stuff, but that it's solid," he said.

Billings will be in Washington, D.C., next month. While there he said he plans to meet with high-level FAA officials.

"They're very professional and they're very cordial, but again, they have a lot of people that are after them for funding," Billings said.

A spokesman for the FAA said in an e-mail that he was unaware of any initiative within the FAA to put a radar system in Provo but was looking into the issue. No further information was available as of Thursday.

Provo Municipal does have an automated weather observation system that monitors weather conditions and reports them to pilots in the area. Officials at Provo Municipal and the FAA said this week that the system has had some problems in recent months but was working at the time of last week's crash.

Airport workers have already had some experiences that would back their claims for needing a radar system. At last week's UATC meeting, Gleason said the temporary radar used for the 2002 Winter Games "opened a lot of eyes."

"We got a lot of calls because no one really knew (before) how much traffic really was in the area," he said.

He also related an experience that happened in January of this year, in which six Delta Airlines flights were diverted to Provo because of inclement weather conditions at Salt Lake International, and then were grounded for several hours because the radar shadow made it difficult to get them back in the air.

Associated Press