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Airport tries to break through fog 2 flights canceled Friday; cargo often rerouted By DAVID PRESZLER Airline passengers aren't the only ones inconvenienced when fog descends on Medford's airport. Cargo shippers are regularly forced to find another way to deliver packages when heavy fog makes it impossible to land. Friday morning's fog canceled two passenger flights and sent at least one cargo flight to Ashland's airport. Shippers say such diversions are common, and airport officials say help is on the way. An estimated 20 times since November, including Friday, Federal Express has rerouted flights to Ashland, unloaded there and trucked packages to Medford, where they are sorted. "It's kind of double handling of packages," says John Philip, a manager at the Medford office. United Parcel Service says it, too, diverted flights to airports in Ashland, Grants Pass or Klamath Falls 18-20 times in November and December. Friday's flights made it in to Medford, but company officials said it was close. As airport officials angle for more cargo shipping business, finding ways to minimize the number of times fog forces flights to land elsewhere is a priority, said Bern Case, the airport's director. The airport has seeded clouds to counter the fog but can do so only when the temperature is below freezing. Lights embedded in the pavement along the runways will help, and will be installed as part of next year's runway extension project. Case said airport officials considered adding the lights earlier but didn't to avoid having to move them when the runway extension is complete. The minimum visibility for most passenger flights is about 2,600 feet -- though some planes with better instruments need only about 1,800 feet. Most cargo planes also need about 1,800 feet to land. But the added lights and other new technology will bring that figure down. "We are hoping to get down to less than 1,000 feet," says Case. "That will save a lot of flights. "In the summer of 2000 those (lights) will be in and in the fall of 2000 it will be a lot better." It may also be better for the next few days. Forecasters expect little fog in the near future. They say Friday's dose was just a break between storms that came in the middle of the night, when the ground was moist enough for fog to form. "We're still in a nice wet pattern," says Chuck Glaser of the National Weather Service. "You might get fog between weather systems. If we get any, it will just be temporary." The fog doesn't affect the United States Postal Service much because most mail in and out of Medford comes by truck, says Medford postmaster Jim Foucault. Only Express Mail is airborne, coming in on Horizon and United passenger flights. When those flights are canceled, it is unloaded in Portland and trucked down later the same day. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA