In late January 2003, NBAA tells us that they provided substantial comments to an FAA Airspace Docket in response to a proposal to construct a 2,000-foot tower in Bayonne, NJ. NBAA, and other concerned parties, argued that the height of the tower coupled with its proposed location in the middle of the busiest terminal airspace in the world would create conditions not conducive to the safe and efficient use of airspace. However, the Metropolitan Television Alliance recently asked the FAA to put the controversial Bayonne, NJ project on hold, because they have completed an agreement with the leaseholder and developer of the proposed 1,776-foot Freedom Tower planned for the former site of the World Trade Center in New York.

The new agreement would return New York broadcasters to the site they occupied before September 11, 2001. New York Governor George Pataki has advocated a construction schedule that would have the cornerstone for Freedom Tower laid in August 2004, and the target date for completion currently is 2008.

In a January 30 letter to the FAA, NBAA President Jack Olcott declared, “NBAA adamantly objects to the construction of the proposed 2,000-foot tower at Bayonne, NJ. The enormous height of the tower, which exceeds the allowable criteria of FAR Part 77, coupled with its proposed location in the middle of the busiest terminal airspace in the world, would unquestionably create conditions not conducive to the safe and efficient use of airspace.”

Association officials are not only concerned about the adverse impact a Bayonne tower would have on visual approaches to Runway 29 at Newark (EWR), but they believe that compromising approaches into EWR will have a “negative domino effect” on operations at Teterboro (TEB).

FMI: www.nbaa.org, jgilley@nbaa.org