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ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Shortly after the earthquake of magnitude 7 near Anchorage, Alaska last week, a construction truck was to serve as a mini tower of air traffic control at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. The air traffic control tower was evacuated after the earthquake and concerns are growing as to its stability, reports KTVA, a subsidiary of CBS Anchorage.
Moments after the earthquake, air traffic controllers asked a FedEx plane to bypass the runway. Airport officials said the aircraft was at an altitude of about 300 to 400 feet, about to land, when flight controllers told the pilot to not not landing.
John Stocker, head of airport operations, told KTVA that they still did not know the extent of the damage to the tracks.
"For the same type of things as for ramps, you could have had a surface that could have changed up to one foot," said Stocker. "Well, if you land with a plane weighing almost millions of pounds, you could easily damage the equipment.Do all kinds of different things.It is much safer at that time to be in the air. "
Before the evacuation of the tower, the airport controllers told the pilots that they were going to land without communication from the tower.
Stocker told KTVA that three air traffic controllers who had left the tower had driven a van to the tracks and were parked near the side of one of them. they could see the planes in all directions. Other controllers who were still in the tower spaced the planes up in the air until the pilots could receive further instructions.
According to KTVA, about eight aircraft were in the vicinity of the airport, including two Alaska Airlines passenger planes. The first two or three planes landed safely, Stocker said.
Then, the three truck controllers, a Ford F-150, began to communicate with the pilots who were watching Anchorage.
Stocker told KTVA that he and a group of many other airport personnel had checked the landing lights, runways, and taxiways and had estimated that the areas were safe for air traffic.
Truck controllers then guided the remaining planes for safe landings, reports KTVA. Stocker explained that they were doing so for about an hour and fifteen minutes and were directing the flights back and forth.
systems, military officials said Friday.
But as in the rest of the seismic zone, there were no deaths, serious injuries or widespread catastrophic damage.
In fact, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Leck, a native of Idaho, was waiting for a worst earthquake at his very first earthquake, he said Friday at a press conference on the impact of the November 30 earthquake. miles north of Anchorage. That was the strength felt during the earthquake, which was followed by thousands of aftershocks.
"I thought with certainty that we had significant damage and that some facilities would be destroyed," said Leck, commander of the 773D Civil Engineer Squadron and director of the base's emergency operations center. "And to date, we have not found anything of the magnitude that I expected."
According to officials, the base was quickly ready to receive planes. Three C-130s landed less than one hour after the earthquake.
The base houses two F-22 Raptor fighter squadrons. None of the more than 40 F-22s installed on the base were damaged by an earthquake, said JBER spokeswoman Erin Eaton.
Damage to the base is still being assessed, a basement assessment being planned by an airfield pavement assessment team traveling to Alaska from Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, announced officials.
Base officials unveiled the damage to a pool part of a base building during Friday's briefing. The ceiling panels were still missing and the floor near the empty pool was littered with debris. The building is among several that remain closed at the base.
The 123 km2 base, located on the north side of Anchorage, is home to approximately 1,000 buildings, as well as 3,200 other dwellings. Only one household was moved, because of a water failure.
None of the seven decks on the base were damaged.
The base has provided emotional support to those in need, said Colonel Michael Staples, commander of the 673D Civil Engineering Group. "The chaplain has been very busy," he said.
The main earthquake damaged structures over a wide area of the temblor impact zone in Anchorage and beyond, disrupting the supply and cracking roads.
By early afternoon on Friday, there had been more than 3,100 aftershocks, including 15 of a magnitude of 4.5 and over, said seismologist Natalia Ruppert of the Tremor Center of land in Alaska.
Anchorage police warned Friday that rock falls were still occurring along a six-mile stretch of Seward Road, lined with cliffs.
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