Skydivers miss airport, land at high-security submarine base... -
Skydivers will no longer be able to drop from the sky out of an airport less than three miles from the highly restricted Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base.
The St. Marys Airport Authority voted Wednesday night to revoke The Jumping Place’s permit to operate out of the small airport. The decision came after two jumpers landed on the base Aug. 12. Altogether, seven skydivers have landed on the base in the past three years.
The vote came after a lengthy and sometimes heated discussion between authority members and the owners of The Jumping Place. Airport Authority member Frank Frasca motioned to revoke the permit shortly after Navy Cmdr. Jeff Pafford told the authority, “This cannot happen again.”
About 5,200 people used the skydiving service each year, The Jumping Place owner Cathy Kloess told the board. She said during the meeting that all of her operations have been above board, strictly following FAA regulations. She said everyone is first shown aerial photographs as well as a video warning that they must not land on the base. She said she could not guarantee, however, that a skydiver wouldn’t land on the base again because skydivers are sometimes blown off course against all odds, and they must land in the safest area available.
The airport authority at first discussed whether to form a committee to decide how to proceed. But when Pafford was later asked for his input, he said, “They cannot land at Submarine Base Kings Bay. We cannot make it any clearer than that. … The issue is not what to do after a skydiver lands [on the base]. They cannot land at Submarine Base Kings Bay. It cannot be a last resort area.”
The base is highly restricted, with one of the country’s few prohibited areas — where planes are not allowed to fly below 3,000 feet over and near certain areas.
Read more - http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2012-08-22/story/skydivers-be-kept-away-kings-bay-base
Skydivers will no longer be able to drop from the sky out of an airport less than three miles from the highly restricted Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base.
The St. Marys Airport Authority voted Wednesday night to revoke The Jumping Place’s permit to operate out of the small airport. The decision came after two jumpers landed on the base Aug. 12. Altogether, seven skydivers have landed on the base in the past three years.
The vote came after a lengthy and sometimes heated discussion between authority members and the owners of The Jumping Place. Airport Authority member Frank Frasca motioned to revoke the permit shortly after Navy Cmdr. Jeff Pafford told the authority, “This cannot happen again.”
About 5,200 people used the skydiving service each year, The Jumping Place owner Cathy Kloess told the board. She said during the meeting that all of her operations have been above board, strictly following FAA regulations. She said everyone is first shown aerial photographs as well as a video warning that they must not land on the base. She said she could not guarantee, however, that a skydiver wouldn’t land on the base again because skydivers are sometimes blown off course against all odds, and they must land in the safest area available.
The airport authority at first discussed whether to form a committee to decide how to proceed. But when Pafford was later asked for his input, he said, “They cannot land at Submarine Base Kings Bay. We cannot make it any clearer than that. … The issue is not what to do after a skydiver lands [on the base]. They cannot land at Submarine Base Kings Bay. It cannot be a last resort area.”
The base is highly restricted, with one of the country’s few prohibited areas — where planes are not allowed to fly below 3,000 feet over and near certain areas.
Read more - http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2012-08-22/story/skydivers-be-kept-away-kings-bay-base
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