Document text
Flight service remains up in the air By MELISSA MARTIN The blasts of jet engines will echo from Rogue Valley skies again after the FAA late Wednesday slowly began lifting the first national ground stop in U.S. history. A few planes dotted the empty skies as the first passengers since Tuesday's terrorist attacks arrived Thursday night at the Medford airport on Horizon shuttles from Portland and Seattle. Depending on late-breaking developments, United Airlines was expected to begin flying passengers this morning. "We'll start getting things moving now, but we will be nowhere close to a normal schedule," said Bern Case, manager of the Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport. Security will be tight. Passengers had to tote luggage from the terminal to the short-term parking lot because new FAA rules prohibit driving or parking within 200 feet of airport terminals. Meanwhile, helicopters and private airplanes remain grounded, except those fighting fires, transporting medical patients or working for law enforcement agencies. Those in the air were carefully monitored by control towers in Seattle, Eugene and Medford. "We have to stay in contact with the control tower at all times, from departure, to our arrival at the hospital and when we lift off," said chief pilot Ron Stewart of Timberland Helicopter Services, which flies aircraft for Mercy Flights. Mercy Flights pilots usually log flights in-house, but since Tuesday, have been required to file a flight plan with the FAA and receive a "squawk code" from the control tower, Stewart said. The squawk code allows the control tower operator to see more information about the aircraft on the radar screen. "The control tower knows who's in the air space at all times," Stewart said. A Mercy Flights airplane pilot became even more aware of the vacant skies Wednesday when he flew a patient to San Francisco and didn't have to wait in line to land at SFO, Stewart said. Radio traffic, which usually has 5 to 10 pilots talking to control towers in Eugene and Seattle at a time, also has been quiet. "We've been the only ones up there," Stewart said. "It's something none of us have ever experienced. The nation's whole aviation infrastructure has never been shut down before." The ground stop has kept mechanic Doug Vetch of Medford's Mac-V Aviation from testing out a helicopter his company recently restored for a customer. "We'd like to go test fly it, but like everybody else, we can't get off the ground," Vetch said. On the ground, Medford airport crews cleared vehicles from the first few rows of parking in the short-term parking lot to comply with the new FAA rules. No one is certain whether the rules will be permanent, Case said. Now that commercial service is resuming, passengers should plan on longer walks; folks can no longer drive right up to the terminal doors. There will be no exceptions for vehicles with handicap stickers, Case said. "If you make an exemption for handicap, all you have to do is have a handicap-looking terrorist and you will defeat all you've done," Case said. Passengers can use free luggage carts available in the parking lot and airport officials will help as much as possible, he said. Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.