Curfew violations and safety
Curfew violations are certainly annoying to people in the community. The Tripartite Agreement, which governs the operations of the Island Airport, was put in place to provide assurances that the airport would be a good neighbour and the curfew is clearly set out in that agreement. No commmercial aircraft are to land or take off between 11:00 pm and 6:45 am.
Now we find that Porter Airlines has violated the curfew on several occasions and they are resistant to following the curfew rules. We have now been told that one Porter pilot, arriving past curfew was instructed to land at Pearson but violated those instructions and landed at the Island Airport.
Added to the frustration of the curfew violations people in the community learned only two weeks ago that after 11:00 pm the air traffic controllers leave the tower and those commercial planes come into the Island without assistance from the tower. Apparently this is the practice in many Canadian airports. We did not know that was the practice but let me tell you the people in the communities immediately adjacent to the airport are not happy.
There are several serious safety problems with the Island Airport. The runways are very short and if a pilot overruns the end of the runway they do not end up in a field; the plane ends up in the water. To the immediate north of the airport there are a number of ten and twelve story apartment buildings. A little further north along Fleet Street and in the Railway Lands are buildings that are 30 stories or more. All of these are safety hazards.
The Island Airport is not in a remote location. It is in downtown Toronto. That is the real reason for the intense controversy around this airport. It affects thousands of people and those same people are concerned about safety from planes flying in and out of the airport. Let me tell you they are doubly concerned now that they know that the planes are coming in without the help of air traffic controllers.
Call that irrational if you like. Perhaps people are overly frightened. It may well be much more dangerous walking on Toronto streets. Certainly it is more dangerous riding a bicycle. But the public has to be assured that the airport is being operated in a safe manner and when we hear that pilots are flying into the airport after curfew without an air traffic controller in the tower then it makes people nervous. Very nervous.
The most sensible way to address this is for the Toronto Port Authority to insist that all commercial air traffic must go to Pearson after curfew. That is the rule set out in the Tripartite Agreement. All we are asking is that the agreement be enforced. That is not unreasonable.
Bill Freeman
Now we find that Porter Airlines has violated the curfew on several occasions and they are resistant to following the curfew rules. We have now been told that one Porter pilot, arriving past curfew was instructed to land at Pearson but violated those instructions and landed at the Island Airport.
Added to the frustration of the curfew violations people in the community learned only two weeks ago that after 11:00 pm the air traffic controllers leave the tower and those commercial planes come into the Island without assistance from the tower. Apparently this is the practice in many Canadian airports. We did not know that was the practice but let me tell you the people in the communities immediately adjacent to the airport are not happy.
There are several serious safety problems with the Island Airport. The runways are very short and if a pilot overruns the end of the runway they do not end up in a field; the plane ends up in the water. To the immediate north of the airport there are a number of ten and twelve story apartment buildings. A little further north along Fleet Street and in the Railway Lands are buildings that are 30 stories or more. All of these are safety hazards.
The Island Airport is not in a remote location. It is in downtown Toronto. That is the real reason for the intense controversy around this airport. It affects thousands of people and those same people are concerned about safety from planes flying in and out of the airport. Let me tell you they are doubly concerned now that they know that the planes are coming in without the help of air traffic controllers.
Call that irrational if you like. Perhaps people are overly frightened. It may well be much more dangerous walking on Toronto streets. Certainly it is more dangerous riding a bicycle. But the public has to be assured that the airport is being operated in a safe manner and when we hear that pilots are flying into the airport after curfew without an air traffic controller in the tower then it makes people nervous. Very nervous.
The most sensible way to address this is for the Toronto Port Authority to insist that all commercial air traffic must go to Pearson after curfew. That is the rule set out in the Tripartite Agreement. All we are asking is that the agreement be enforced. That is not unreasonable.
Bill Freeman
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