Palm Beach Radar data highlights safety issues at Lantana Airport
Above radar snapshot shows two aircraft training at Lantana Airport that came
within seconds of a potential collision on April 3rd
CLICK HERE FOR
SHORT VIDEO OF THE RADAR TRACES IN REAL TIME
With periods of time when Lantana Airport has two and a half times the flight
traffic as PBI and with no form of control... it's no wonder there are huge
safety issues at Lantana Airport as the incident above shows. But this is not
a unique incident... there are so many safety incidents occuring almost daily,
that it's impossible to archive all of them. Pick any day and hour and its a
certainty that something will pop up somehwere.
And that "somewhere" might even be Rainbow Lakes in Boynton Beach
April 3rd at 9:40 AM where Palm Beach helicopter N215WW dropped down to 361 feet MSL which means
he was lower than that over the ground. This pilot became a nuisance and disturbance
as he circled around a residential community at low altitude... where he wasn't
supposed to be. But more importantly, it was the safety risk of operating what
is known as "a flying brick" (helicopter) at an altitude that if he
had engine failure would have sent him into someones condo. That's why he wasn't
supposed to be there. But this happens pretty much every day.
On another occasion it might be an aircraft buzzing the Key Lime House
in Lantana at tree top level... at night. He left Lantana Airport and buzzed
down the intracoastal at 39 feet before oozing up over the Key Lime House.
Or it might be an old noisy twin Beechcraft whoses pilot loves to buzz houses
on High Ridge Road during departure and so flies at a minium altitude while
he enjoys waking everyone up at 7:45 AM on a Saturday morning. Again at that
altitude over populated areas, he is incurring a huge risk to the public below.
And it's just a statistical reality that with ever increasing operations, the
public is put further and further at risk as this incident shows where a student
makes the wrong decision, flies against the flow of traffic in the pattern and
comes within seconds of meeting head on with another aircraft over a populated
area. And this is by no means an isolated incident either.
Without any regulation or monitoring with consequences, many pilots have become
reckless, inconsiderate and recalcitrant… even to the point of demonstrating
“road rage from the air” all caught on LWM cameras over the past
four months.
This may explain why the County specifically designed special flight procedures
known as NOISE ABATEMENT PROCEDURES to protect the public from these safety
issues. They formally requested the tenant and his training schools as well
as all instructors, students and helicopter pilots using Lantana Airport to
KEEP ALL PATTERN ROUTES OVER AIRPORT – OPERATE AWAY
FROM POPULATED AREAS.
The County anticipated this would protect the communities from further harm
from these school operations and they counted on a ‘good faith effort’
from the tenant and his schools, instructors, students and pilots to comply…
but they never have, not in FIVE YEARS NOW and the Palm Beach Radar traces confirm
that.
