Crash at Airport Closed to Night Traffic: Caltrans Shuts Facility Friday; Pilot Hurt Sunday

A Piper Cherokee airplane crashed at the Nevada County Airport Sunday night, two days after the airport had been officially closed to nighttime operations. Caltrans closed the Nevada County Airport to night operations on Friday. It may close the airport to all operations in 90 days, a Caltrans official warned. The plane, piloted by Dr. Arnold Adicoff of Nevada County, was attempting to land eastbound on runway seven between 8:30 and 8:45 p.m. Sunday when it went off the runway and crashed, said Sherman Hanley, an airport service worker. Adicoff was being treated for minor injuries at Sierra Nevada Memorial Airport Sunday night. Hanley said the airplane was likely a total loss but the airport was not damaged. The Nevada County Consolidated Fire Department and the Nevada County Sheriffıs Department responded to the accident.

Caltrans said restrictions were necessary because the county has not removed trees the department has been telling the county to remove since March 1996, James E. Michel, Caltrans aviation safety officer, wrote in a letter to the county. In fact, additional trees have grown up and provided new obstructions, he said. In June of 1996 the Federal Aviation Administration further stated that trees on the airportıs northside while not immediately obstructing landings, should be lighted, Michel said. This has not been done, he said in his letter, dated Aug. 11 and addressed to Zelna Morrow, acting airport manager. The suspension will remain in effect until all obstructions are cleared and the lighting is installed, Michel said. Daylight operations will only be allowed for the next 90 days and no permission extension will be issued, he said. Ken Joyce, owner of Chase Air and Alta Vista Air at the airport, thinks the county should get out of the airport business. This is typical, Joyce said. The county should make the airport a district of its own and let a commission that knows aviation run the airport. The closing comes as no surprise, Joyce said. But he does not think the airport will be closed in 90 days, he said. If the airport closes, the county will owe the federal government $5.2 million, Joyce said. The county can't let it close. The money Joyce referred to was grant funds to the airport to keep it running, he said. County Supervisor Peter Van Zant thought Caltrans was being overbearing with the threatened closing. This Board of Supervisors and staff has been working to fix the airport as soon as possible,² Van Zant said.

If it closes our CDF (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) base, people could die. CDF has two air tankers and a third plane that coordinates the use of the air tankers all based at the airport. Staff at dispatch and at the CDF said Sunday they were too busy to comment on the possible airport closure. Morrow could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

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