FAA To Review Environmental Impact Study

A July 2 runway overrun accident that claimed the lives of two people has prompted renewed talk of relocating an Arkansas airport.

As ANN reported, the 71-year-old pilot of a Cessna Citation 500 was killed when his plane impacted a house approximately 500 feet from the runway end at Conway Municipal Airport (CWS). A woman inside the home also perished in the crash, which apparently occurred after the pilot landed long on the 4,800-foot runway, and attempted a go-around.

A passenger on the plane, and another occupant of the home who was outside at the time, survived the accident with injuries.

Officials in Conway are due to meet with the FAA in the coming week, according to Little Rock's KATV-7, to discuss moving the airport. It isn't the first time the idea has been bandied about -- talk of moving the airport dates back the 1970s.

At the forefront of the city's concerns about the current airport, is the lack of safety zones at the current facility. Conway Mayor Tab Townsell said the accident, though tragic, could have been far worse.

"Had the airplane been coming from the other end, other direction and run off the runway, the end of that runway on the east side is only 200 feet from the interstate," he said. "And beyond that is Target and Home Depot right across from that, so it's a catastrophically dangerous airport that we saw. What could happen brought to the forefront in a tragic way this past weekend."

A similar accident occurred in 1990, when a twin-engine airplane crashed into a fence and a house as it tried to land at the airport, killing the plane's co-pilot.

The Conway Development Corporation owns several hundred acres of farmland, unencroached upon by residential development, that could be used for a new airport, although an environmental impact study on birds in the area has delayed further talk of placing a new airport there.

Townsell says the study is complete, however, and he's hopeful FAA officials will sign off on the new airport soon.

The new facility would sport a 5,500-foot runway, according to KATV, with 1,000-foot safety zones at either end. Estimated cost of the project is between $10-$12 million.

If the FAA signs off on the new airport, it would likely be open for operations in five to six years.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.ntsb.gov, www.conwayairport.com