Mayors request a radar system
Seven months later, a well-known Utah County plastic surgeon and his wife were returning from St. George when their plane crashed into a mountain near Salem. They also were killed.
Provo Mayor Lewis Billings says he believes both deadly accidents could have been prevented if there had been a radar system in Utah County.
Now, Billings is enlisting the help of his mayoral peers in an effort to avert similar tragedies in the future.
Mayors of Utah County's cities and towns that make up the Mountainland Regional Planning Committee unanimously passed a resolution earlier this month urging the Utah congressional delegation to work with the Federal Aviation Administration to secure a digital airport surveillance radar site in Utah County.
The radar system, known as the ASR-11, detects aircraft position and weather conditions in the vicinity of civilian and military airfields, according to the FAA.
The system is needed to overcome a "radar shadow" that makes it impossible for controllers to view air traffic below 8,000 feet in the Utah Valley, Billings said.
"This is not about economic development in Provo," Billings said. "This is not about putting people in an office somewhere looking at a radar screen in Provo. This is about getting a radar device covering an area over our valley that is currently not covered."
Provo Municipal Airport actually may not be the best site for the radar, Billings said. An FAA study in 2001 showed that a radar placed near Camp Williams likely would be most effective for both the Provo airport and Salt Lake International Airport, he said.
"For us, it's not about pride of ownership," Billings said. "It's the function."
The Provo airport does have some cost benefits for the estimated $12 million facility. Some infrastructure for the radar remains from a temporary ASR-9 system located at the airport during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
At the time, the FAA recognized the need for an additional radar site for Salt Lake International, but a campaign to keep the system in Provo after the Games was unsuccessful.
In July, the Utah Air Travel Commission sent a letter to Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and Reps. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Chris Cannon, R-Utah, asking for their support in getting legislative appropriation to fund radar coverage in Utah Valley.
Both Utah senators have included language in the appropriations bill asking for financial consideration for the Utah Valley radar request, said Kent Millington, an executive committee member of the UATC.
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