Grisly mid-air crash cited as airport fights for tower
Safety at issue in `unique' airspace over Windsor, pilots tell meeting
A horrific mid-air collision that scattered bodies and plane wreckage across Riverside in 1979 was cited at a virtual meeting Tuesday, as pilots and airline officials raised safety concerns over the possible loss of air-traffic control at Windsor International Airport.
The July 10 crash involved two small planes — one with three aboard that was just leaving Detroit City Airport, and a Cessna 150 with two aboard that had just departed Windsor airport — colliding at 1,000 feet, killing all five people.
Witnesses told the Windsor Star at the time it was a miracle no one on the ground was hurt as debris landed and burst into flames in the area around Riverside Drive and Riverdale Avenue.
At a Tuesday stakeholders meeting hosted by air navigation service provider NAV Canada — closed to the public — local pilots raised the collision as an illustration of the dangers of flying in Windsor's “unique air space,” shared with planes flying in and out of Detroit City and Detroit Metro airports.
Following the crash, the “Riverside Descent Area” was created, an area that planes can't fly through without special permission.
That's because the approaches of Windsor and Detroit City airports “sort of criss-cross,” Windsor International Airport CEO Mark
Galvin said after the meeting.
“And that's what happened in `79.”
The removal of air-traffic control is the worst-case possibility of a review recently launched by NAV Canada, looking for cost savings in response to dramatic drops in air-traffic volumes and a resulting drop in revenue.
The controllers in the tower could be replaced by an automated flight service system that requires pilots to be “responsible for maintaining a safe distance from other aircraft and control services are not provided,” according to the NAV Canada website.
Windsor has higher volumes than most of the other five airports being reviewed.
And local supporters of the airport stress Windsor's unique air space makes the retention of an air-traffic control tower essential.
NAV Canada has suggested that an airport needs 60,000 aircraft movements (a takeoff, landing or simulated approach) annually to warrant air-traffic control, although other factors can play into the decision. Windsor's movements have been rising steadily for years, peaking at 44,000 in 2019 before COVID caused traffic volumes to crash globally in 2020.
But Galvin pointed out that during the two other times when the possible removal of air-traffic control was studied, in 2008 and 1998, movements were nowhere close to the 60,000-mark.
“So obviously, the complexity of the air space carried some weight then.”
Mayor Drew Dilkens, who chairs the airport's board and has been among the leaders in the fight to retain air-traffic control, said that the investigation of the 1979 Riverside crash also noted the complexity of the local air space.
“The three airports that were in question are still there and still in the same spots, and the only thing that's changed is air traffic now has increased in the area,” he said Thursday.
Galvin said the pilots and other stakeholders made great arguments for keeping air-traffic control. While Windsor may have only 44,000 annual movements, when Detroit City's 56,000 and Detroit Metro's 393,000 figures are added, the total is close to 500,000, he pointed out, all within 17 nautical miles.
“I think (NAV Canada officials) heard loud and clear about the complex air space here with the Detroit airports, the potential for delays if a control tower is removed and it goes to a flight service station, the safety implications and the mix of traffic with different speeds of aircraft,” he said. “You have everything from student pilots (in single-engine planes) to corporate jets to the large jets that come in and out.”
The threat of losing air-traffic control has ignited a local campaign to save it, not just because of safety concerns, but also concerns over the economic damage that could result if many aircraft stop using Windsor.
In a Jan. 11 letter to Dilkens, federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau (who has since been replaced in a cabinet shuffle by Omar Alghabra) said Transport Canada will carefully review the results of NAV Canada's study to ensure the recommended changes don't bring “unacceptable risks.”
“As minister of Transport, the safety of communities is my top priority, and I will never hesitate to take actions necessary to prevent unacceptable safety risks to our communities,” Garneau said.
MP Irek Kusmierczyk (L — Windsor-tecumseh) said he's been in frequent contact with the new minister and is setting up a meeting to discuss several local issues requiring his attention, including air traffic control, but also the preservation of Ojibway Shores (federally-owned through the Windsor Port Authority) and forbidding hazardous materials on the Ambassador Bridge.
Alghabra, Kusmierczyk said, “is very keen on meeting with me and to have a conversation with me on Windsor-tecumseh issues and the NAV Can issue is on the top of the list.”
Tuesday's meeting was one of several avenues NAV Canada is using to engage with stakeholders, spokeswoman Rebecca Hickey said in an email.
The company is asking that submissions from interested parties be submitted by Feb. 8, “and (we) are pleased to see a significant amount of input received to date, which represents an important aspect of our assessment,” she added.
While the resulting recommendations are expected in the spring, Hickey said the timing of any changes will depend on what the recommendations involve and Transport Canada's agreement.