Kirksville Official Wants Pilots to Stop Dumping Their Planes at Missouri Airports
JEFFERSON CITY — Imagine you run a small airport in northeast Missouri — you can call yourself Sky Czar, if you like.
Now imagine a man flies into your airport, parks his plane, and tells you he'll be back tomorrow, but instead, his plane just sits there with tires going flat and fuel leaking out of it.
Oh, and when you get hold of him two years later and tell him he needs to move, he says he can park there as long as he wants, and your city attorney says he's right because there's no law letting you seize the plane.
Now you know why Glenn Balliew, director of Kirksville Regional Airport, started pushing for a new law a few years back.
Rep. Greg Sharpe, R-Ewing, is trying to deliver one this year. He presented a bill to a House committee Monday that would let airports begin a process of seizing a plane after one has sat for at least 45 days without an agreement to use the space.
The airport would first try to find out who owns or holds an interest in the abandoned plane and send them notice giving them 30 days to pay up or move their property. If they refuse or don't respond, the airport could seize the plane and use it, sell it or dispose of it.
The airport could move a plane sooner if it posed a danger to people.
Balliew said the idea takes the logic of towing abandoned cars and applies it to the tarmac.
"If I park my car at city hall and the tires go flat and the engine won't frickin' start and it's just a piece of junk sitting there, there is a state law that addresses that issue," he said. "Same concept."
No one at the committee hearing Monday seemed to have much problem with that.
Dennis Wiss, who runs an airport in St. Charles County, told lawmakers it would help him and others out, too.
"I now have three airplanes sitting on my ramp that have basically been abandoned," he said. "The owner is not willing to do anything."
Balliew said there are some things an airport can do now to counter that attitude.
He said he eventually got one guy to move his plane after 13 years by charging him rent and began getting ahead of the problem by requiring anyone parking overnight to provide the airport with their information.
He still wants a legal way to seize planes if someone digs their feet in, though.
"You can make them have to pay a price for doing this, but still, if they don't want to and they walk away and say 'screw you,'... you can sue them for your money back, but you still can't do anything with the plane."
The committee did not take a vote on the bill, which is how things usually work the first time a bill is heard in a given year.
Folks in Springfield would appreciate it passing the next time it comes up, though.
Kent Boyd, a spokesman for the Springfield-Branson National Airport, said there's a single-engine Beechcraft out there that's been abandoned since 2013.
An unusual series of events have technically left it with no legal owner, Boyd said, leaving it to take up space indefinitely.
"If this bill gets passed, it would allow airports to get rid of these airplanes in ownership limbo," Boyd said.
The legislation is House Bill 1333.
———
©2020 Kirksville Daily Express, Mo.
Visit Kirksville Daily Express, Mo. at www.kirksvilledailyexpress.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
