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F-16's rough landing damages antenna

April 27, 2005 - Associated Press

Sout Burlington - Last week's rough landing of a Vermont Air National Guard fighter jet damaged an antenna at Burlington International Airport, making landing more difficult for any pilot arriving at the airfield.

The severed antenna emitted a signal that told pilots where they were in relation to the runway. Without the signal, pilots and air-traffic controllers are using other methods that are older, slower and less precise, airport officials said Monday.

A landing gear on an unarmed F-16 Fighting Falcon collapsed Wednesday night when the aircraft touched down following a routine training mission. The pilot was uninjured; the $18.8 million single-seat plane was damaged as its wing scraped along the runway.

Investigators discovered a damaged bank of landing lights and the detached antenna along the final portion of the F-16's flight path, said Col. Philip Murdock, commander of the Guard's 158th Fighter Wing.

The lights and antenna - which stood about 8 feet high - are near a paved portion of the landing strip, but about 1,000 feet from where aircraft are supposed to touch down, said John Elgert, a staff specialist for the Federal Aviation Administration at the airport.

There is no danger as a result of the antenna damage, Elgert said, but other guidance systems make the landing process take longer.

"It has certainly slowed operations down," he said.

The slower pace is a matter of minutes, Airport Director J.J. Hamilton said. Pilots and flight controllers must leave additional room between planes on approach to the airport. Minimum standards for visibility and the altitude of cloud cover also have been increased to ensure safe landings under the less-precise alternate systems, Hamilton said.

Landing now is particularly tricky from midnight to 5:30 a.m., when the control tower is unmanned, Hamilton said.

A day after the incident, the airport sent a brief memo to all commercial airlines that fly into Burlington about the damaged antenna and its implications.

Repairs on the antenna are expected to take about two weeks.