Pilots Argue Against Moving Sun Valley Airport

July 27, 2005
A group of local pilots has challenged Sun Valley airport officials' claim that keeping the resort area's busy landing field in Hailey would be unsafe because planes might crash into nearby schools or a senior citizens center.

HAILEY, Idaho (AP) -- A group of local pilots has challenged Sun Valley airport officials' claim that keeping the resort area's busy landing field in Hailey would be unsafe because planes might crash into nearby schools or a senior citizens center.

That disastrous scenario is included in a list of reasons to relocate the airport released Monday night by members of the Hailey City Council, Blaine County Commission and the Friedman Memorial Airport Authority. The three entities are trying to muster public support for moving the airport to a neighboring county.

Their relocation summary, to be published in local newspapers as an advertisement, says: ''If there was ever a flight emergency, there would be a chance an aircraft might crash into a school or senior center.''

Earlier this year, Federal Aviation Administration officials told the airport authority while the agency was not requiring relocation of the airport, future requests by airlines to operate regional jets or larger turboprops in the area would need to be weighed against the design limitations of the Hailey landing field.

Carlton Green of the Blaine County Pilots Association, an organization representing about 100 area general aviation pilots, said the city, county and airport authority are trying to scare people into supporting their relocation plan.

''This is no more a threat here than at many airports around the country and is intended to promote fear,'' Green told the Twin Falls Times-News in a statement. ''This politically motivated tactic is an affront to all of us who live here.''

The relocation summary also notes that 20 percent of passengers bound for Sun Valley have to be diverted to Twin Falls or Boise during the winter due to weather, that outgoing planes must take off in the same direction as incoming planes, and that there is no land available for expansion.

The debate over whether and where to move the airport has divided area communities.

The city of Hailey and the Blaine County Commission support moving the airport, while the neighboring towns of Sun Valley and Ketchum - home to the ski slopes, restaurants and lodges that are the focal point of the local tourism industry - have opposed the idea.

Wally Huffman, Sun Valley Co. general manager and a member of a local advisory committee that has studied potential relocation of Friedman Memorial Airport, has said moving the airport out of the county would be disastrous for tourism.

In May, a majority of the 25-member airport site selection committee supported moving the airport 25 miles south to neighboring Lincoln County.

After a Sept. 28 public hearing, the airport authority will recommend a new site to the FAA, which then will begin what could be a 10-year-long process to study the site and secure funding before construction begins.