Fullerton : Runway Closed for Safety Project

The runway at Municipal Airport will be closed at night for at least two weeks while safety equipment is installed.

A new guidance system will help pilots land from the Buena Park approach, and additional lighted windsocks will be built at the airport.

The guidance system has different-colored lights to help pilots gauge their approach. If a plane is coming in on the right approach, the pilot will see a solid white light. If the plane is too high, there will be a white blinking light; too low and the system shows a red blinking light.

The system will help pilots get on the right approach and will reduce airplane noise, airport director Roland Elder said. On a clear day, pilots will be able to see the lights from three miles away, he said.

The sole runway at the airport is now closed from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. every night, and will reopen nights on March 4 at the earliest. Elder said the recent rains have slowed installation of the equipment.

Normally the air traffic control tower is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., but pilots may use the runway when the tower is closed.

About five commuters fly into the airport daily before the tower is open, said Gordon Sutterfield, air traffic manager. The pilots use set procedures to land themselves, he said.

Planes land at either end of the runway, depending on the wind. Approaching from the west, planes come in over Buena Park, which borders the airport. A light system has been in place for pilots landing from the east side of the runway for five years, Elder said.

The improvements have been planned for some time and are not in response to three plane crashes at the airport last fall, said Jim Brunner, assistant to the airport director.

Brunner said that none of the plane crashes that have occurred at the airport in the seven years he has worked there have been caused by pilots veering off course as they approached the west end of the airport. There have been 21 crashes at or near the airport since 1985, killing five people and injuring eight.