Morristown airport affected by WTC

By James A. Duffy
Daily Record
October 2001

Several dozen additional corporate jets daily are directed to Morristown Municipal Airport each day in the wake of last month’s terrorist attacks in New York, which some say has created even more air traffic and noise than usual in suburban areas surrounding the airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration’ has indefinitely barred corporate jets and other such aircraft from Bergen County’s Teterboro Airport and others within a 25-mile radius of Kennedy International Airport — one of many ripple effects from the Sept. 11 assault on America.

Current FAA guidelines state that small, private aircraft that operate under visual flight rules are not allowed to fly near New York — including to Morristown — or some 30 other large metropolitan areas across the United States.

But aircraft flown by instrument-rated pilots, who must file flight plans that are closely monitored by air traffic controllers, can take to the sky. And those that normally would head to John F. Kennedy International, LaGuardia or Newark International airports, Teterboro or New York’s Republic Airport now must land elsewhere.

Most find themselves at Westchester County Airport in White Plains, N.Y., or at Morristown.

"Our phones in Hanover Township are ringing," Mayor Ronald F. Francioli said Monday. "We’ve probably added 25 to 30 percent to our complaint level."

Residents of towns neighboring the airport, owned by Morristown although it sits within the boundaries of Hanover, have long complained of aircraft noise because their homes and businesses lie near take-off and approach paths.

"We’ve had a slight increase in noise complaints but, to tell you the truth, it’s not been overwhelming," Morristown airport Director William G. Barkhauer said Monday.

"It’s probably a good place to start by saying our total volume is down right now," Barkhauer said. "Our light aircraft has dwindled almost to nothing. But our corporate jet traffic has increased."

Depending on the day of the week, 30 to 60 more corporate jets a day come and go, said Barkhauer, whose company, D.M. Airport Developers Inc., leases the airport land and oversees basic operations under a 99-year lease signed with Morristown in 1982.

Nationwide, major carriers have been losing business to corporate charter companies, which have seen requests for private flights skyrocket in the weeks since terrorists commandeered four jetliners and crashed three of them into U.S. landmarks.

At 271,074 takeoffs and landings last year, Morristown was the second-busiest airport in New Jersey after the 457,182 operations at Newark. Slightly more than one-third of the Morristown operations came from planes based here, with the rest logged by planes flying in from elsewhere.

"People are very cognizant of all airplane noise right now," said Morris Plains Councilman Michael A. Carlucci, the borough’s representative on the Inter-Municipal Airport Committee, which also includes officials from Hanover, East Hanover, Morris Township, Madison and Florham Park.

William List, head of the anti-noise group QUEST (Quieter Environment through Sound Thinking) in Madison, said little can be done, anyway.

"There is increased traffic, obviously, but I wouldn’t say it’s any louder," List said. "And there’s not much I feel we can do about it because of the situation."

Because Morristown is a public-use airport that accepts federal and state funding, it cannot deny planes access to the site, Barkhauer said.

"We’ve turned one of our (two) runways into a temporary aircraft parking lot," he said. "But it’s kind of a capacity issue, not really a safety issue."

Other planes normally based at Teterboro have made Morristown their temporary home, he said.

Since the attacks, the FAA gradually has returned air travel to pre-Sept. 11 conditions, but Barkhauer does not know when the agency might allow corporate jets to fly closer to major cities.

"We don’t anticipate that this is going to be permanent thing," Barkhauer said. "We view it as temporary, but we do not have a target date."

U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-NJ, said Monday that air safety must be a top priority.

"That said … I will continue to work closely with local elected officials, the FAA and other members of Congress to address aircraft noise problems at our major airports, like Newark International, and municipal airport, such as Morristown," Frelinghuysen said.

James A. Duffy can be reached at jduffy@morristo.gannett.com or (973) 267-1142.