Airport team responds quickly, efficiently to FAA inspection results

The FAA inspected the Monterey Peninsula Airport on Friday and gave them an "A." The FAA sent a runway safety action team to the airport to check on progress after another FAA safety official came down hard on the facility for having faded runway and taxiway markings. The original inspection took place after pilots complained about the condition of the markings.

The airport is now planning to repaint all the markings under a maintenance project that will begin work next week, funded by a $400,000 federal grant. The project would have started earlier, but delays in securing the money from the FAA moved the start date up a it, according to airport general manager Tom Greer. "We were already planning to do it," he told the Monterey Herald.

The runway safety team, composed of seven inspectors, toured the field and tower on Friday, and made several recommendations, including improvement of directional signs and ground markings that help keep pilots from taking their airplanes where they should not go.

"I think they are doing a very commendable job," said Col. Dave Kurner, USMC-Ret., the FAA's regional runway safety program manager. "They respond rapidly and appear to have excellent communication." The inspection took five hours, and was the first time the team had visited Monterey.  FAA spokesman Donn Walker said that the inspection was routine and not because of any reported problems. "It's pretty standard stuff visiting airports," said Walker.

In fact, only two runway incursions took place at the Monterey Airport in four years, and both of them occurred in 2000. "This airport has a very good record," Walker said.

FMI: www.montereyairport.com