JB in so cal
06-05-2006, 02:01 PM
http://www.miami.com/images/miami/miamiherald/14743/217360293984.jpg
For the next three years, Opa-locka Airport's control tower will be a trailer perched atop cargo containers welded together. Controllers must climb a ladder to get inside. And the tower is only 33 feet off the ground, meaning controllers can't see the entire airfield.
''I guess you can call it a piece of modern art,'' said Charles Danger, Miami-Dade County's top building official. ``This is not a structure that meets any code whatsoever.''
Some pilots wonder how controllers can guide planes safely given their diminished views. ''They can't see where you taxi out,'' said pilot Rene Martin.
The tower dispute is another black mark on the struggling airfield, less than a year before what will be one of its busiest times -- when corporate jets descend on South Florida for Super Bowl XLI in February.
The Federal Aviation Administration moved into the temporary, specially designed control trailer in early May because the old 141-foot-tall tower is falling apart. Though controllers had complained about conditions in the old tower for years, wrangling over money between the county's Aviation Department and the FAA has stalled construction of a new $11 million facility.
For the next three years, Opa-locka Airport's control tower will be a trailer perched atop cargo containers welded together. Controllers must climb a ladder to get inside. And the tower is only 33 feet off the ground, meaning controllers can't see the entire airfield.
''I guess you can call it a piece of modern art,'' said Charles Danger, Miami-Dade County's top building official. ``This is not a structure that meets any code whatsoever.''
Some pilots wonder how controllers can guide planes safely given their diminished views. ''They can't see where you taxi out,'' said pilot Rene Martin.
The tower dispute is another black mark on the struggling airfield, less than a year before what will be one of its busiest times -- when corporate jets descend on South Florida for Super Bowl XLI in February.
The Federal Aviation Administration moved into the temporary, specially designed control trailer in early May because the old 141-foot-tall tower is falling apart. Though controllers had complained about conditions in the old tower for years, wrangling over money between the county's Aviation Department and the FAA has stalled construction of a new $11 million facility.