Saturday, December 11, 1999
By PAUL ROGERS
Staff Writer
HASBROUCK HEIGHTS -- A day after a fiery plane crash in a
dense suburban neighborhood here, federal officials Friday called for an extensive review
of the number of takeoffs and landings at Teterboro Airport.
Citing federal aviation statistics that show the airport
handles more than 200,000 flights a year, Rep. Steve Rothman, D-Fair Lawn, said the
traffic had reached dangerous proportions given the heavy population of the surrounding
region.
"For an airport such as Teterboro, in the heart of
one of the most densely crowded areas in the most densely crowded state . . . to have so
many airplane flights coming in and out is simply wrong and unnecessary," Rothman
said at a news conference at the crash site.
Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., urged the Federal
Aviation Administration to conduct an emergency 60-day study of the dangers of small
aircraft flying over densely populated regions.
Lautenberg, the ranking Democrat on the Senate
transportation subcommittee, asked the FAA whether airports should have the authority to
ground small planes during bad weather and other dangerous conditions. He also asked
whether planes that land or take off from airports in congested areas should be subject to
stiffer inspections.
Jim Peters, a spokesman for the FAA, said the agency would
give Lautenberg's request serious consideration, although it had yet to receive any formal
request.
Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of
Thursday's crash of a six-seat Beech Baron 58, which killed all four people on board and
injured three rescuers.Two weeks ago, another private plane plunged into a Newark
neighborhood, killing a family of three on board and injuring 25 on the ground.
Concern, even outrage, over Teterboro Airport is hardly
new. For years, residents and officials of southern and central Bergen County towns have
pressured lawmakers and held demonstrations seeking to reduce the number of takeoffs and
landings at the airport. They have repeatedly voiced frustrations about aircraft noise and
fears of airplane emissions and the potential for crashes.
Similar complaints have been made about flight paths of
planes to and from Newark International Airport.
At the same time, Teterboro, once a relatively quiet
freight hub, has become ever more bustling with corporate jets.
"This fight has been going on for decades," said
Assemblywoman Rose M. Heck, R-Lodi.
In April, a team of legislators including Rothman, Heck,
and Bergen County Executive William "Pat" Schuber wrote to the Port Authority of
New York and New Jersey, Teterboro Airport's owner, urging changes.
They suggested an overnight curfew on all but emergency
and necessary government flights; a requirement that all planes use new, quieter engines;
an increase in the minimum approach ceiling from 3,000 to 3,500 feet, and a limit on the
size of planes using the airport.
Given the size of the plane that crashed in Hasbrouck
Heights and the hour it went down -- about 5:30 p.m. -- such reforms probably would not
have prevented the accident.
Still, Rothman and Heck said the Port Authority has done
little to address their concerns. "The responses from the Port Authority are
unacceptable," Heck said.
But Port Authority spokesman Greg Trevor said the agency
"has been willing and continues to be willing to sit down with people who have
expressed concerns about the operations" of Teterboro Airport. He provided a
three-page response that Port Authority Chairman Lewis Eisenberg wrote to Rothman in June,
addressing each of the points raised by the congressman and others in April.
On the curfew issue, for example, Eisenberg said such
airport restrictions have been struck down in the courts as barriers to interstate
commerce. What's more, he wrote, only 7 percent of Teterboro's daily air traffic moves
between midnight and 6 a.m.
Many consider it remarkable that the plane Thursday landed
and exploded in a back yard off Washington Place instead of barreling into a home and
killing more than just those on board. Given the density of the region and the volume of
Teterboro's air traffic, they say, the potential for a far more devastating accident
remains.
"It was a tragedy what happened, but we could have a
catastrophe," said William DeFabiis, superintendent of schools in neighboring South
Hackensack, where planes to and from Teterboro often fly over the playground at Memorial
School.
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