A group of business aircraft operators that uses Teterboro airport in New Jersey has pledged a number of voluntary measures designed to improve the safety and operating environment at the base and placate thousands of residents living nearby.
The pledges were developed by the Teterboro Airport Industry Working Group, which was created late last year by the residents and users of Teterboro to address community concerns about aviation noise and safety.
James Coyne, president of the National Air Transportation Association (NATA), a driving force behind the changes, says the pledges were prompted largely by accidents at the airport in the last couple of years, notably the February 2005 crash of a Bombardier Challenger 600. The aircraft, carrying 11 people, overran the end of the runway and smashed through the perimeter fence, ran across a highway hitting two cars, and came to rest having crashed through a wall of a building.
After the accident, the local community pledged to lobby the Federal Aviation Administration to impose restrictions on the number and types of flights using Teterboro. These concerns were accepted by the working group, which agreed to impose a night-time curfew from 23:00 to 06:00, ban Chapter 2 aircraft, not to operate aircraft weighing more than 45,400kg (100,000lb) and to improve safety significantly at the airport.
Source: Flight International
