TOWER POWER: CAPE COMMITTED TO KEEPING REGIONAL AIRPORT CONTROL TOWER OPEN; CRASH IN QUINCY, ILL., UNDERSCORES FEARS

The news landed in the media's hands with a sickening thud.

A commuter flight and private plane collided Nov. 19 at an airport near Quincy, Ill. Fourteen people died that night -- every person on board both planes.

Like many small airports, Baldwin Municipal Airport has intersecting runways and no control tower. It is up to the pilots to broadcast their positions on a specific radio frequency. Maybe someone else is listening, maybe not.

As they heard news reports from the accident scene in Quincy, those in cities with other uncontrolled airports had to wonder if their facility would see the next big disaster.

Those who fly in and out of Cape Girardeau Regional Airport have an advantage. Despite the relatively low traffic, the airport has a tower manned from 7 a.m.-9 p.m., the busiest time of the day.

Air traffic controllers radio pilots to let them know the location of other planes, runway conditions and other vital facts. If a plane doesn't have a radio, the controllers use bright red, green and white lights to indicate whether the pilot can land or not.

When the Federal Aviation Administration decided to cut funding to Cape Girardeau Regional Airport's tower in December 1995, the city of Cape Girardeau started picking up the tab. Running the tower will cost taxpayers an estimated $162,500 this year, plus the other costs of operating an airport.

The threat of losing the control tower began when the FAA announced it would examine the towers it operated. The administration used a complicated benefit-cost formula to decide which should remain funded. The formula, designed to determine if the benefits of running a tower outweigh the cost, compared traffic to the tower's budget.

Cape Girardeau Regional Airport needed a benefit-cost ratio of 1.0 or greater. The FAA said the numbers added up to only .40.

In February, State Rep. Joe Heckemeyer of Sikeston proposed legislation that would have allocated $200,000 to operate the tower. That amount was slashed to $77,000, passed in the House and went to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

It stalled.

Interim airport manager Walter Denton said city officials felt running the tower was worth the cost. They didn't want to operate an airport without one.

But neither do they want to keep paying the tab year after year.

Denton said the options are plain: The airport can increase its number of takeoffs and landings to increase its benefit-cost ratio, the state can come up with money for the tower or city governments benefiting from having a nearby airport can share the cost.

The last option is almost laughable, Denton said.

"They are benefiting without paying for it now," he said. "Why would they want to start? Everyone is in a tight budget situation. Governments are finding ways to cut spending, not finding new things to spend on."

The chance of getting the FAA to reconsider may be slim, too. Larry Barnett, a Washington, D.C., airport consultant who worked with Cape Girardeau on its cost-benefit ratio, said the FAA used different numbers than the city of Cape Girardeau to get its ratio.

Barnett wanted the FAA to use forecasts for air traffic. Instead, the administration used historical data. Because the area is growing, the airport's history doesn't demonstrate upcoming needs, he said.

Chief Controller Larry Davis wants Cape Girardeau to form a coalition with more than 30 other towers operating without federal money. Then airport officials can share ideas about how to obtain funding.

No matter what the solution is, Airport Advisory Board Chairman J. Fred Waltz wants the city to keep the tower open. Without it, he said, safety would be compromised.

"Without a control tower, we have all the same ingredients as Quincy had," Waltz said. "We have commuter flights running plus a pretty high number of general aviation aircraft."

William Chritton is chairman of the board of Air Evac, the fixed-base operator for Cape Girardeau Regional Airport. A pilot himself, he said he appreciates airports with working towers. There are more eyes to see potential disaster and more ears listening to radio signals.

Chritton works out of the airport in West Plains, where there is no tower. It is possible to fly safely without one if pilots maintain radio contact with each other. Some forget, others have equipment malfunctions and still others don't have radios at all, Chritton said.

The National Transportation Safety Board, the independent federal agency responsible for investigating crashes, hasn't come to a conclusion about the Quincy incident. Spokesperson Pat Cariseo said Quincy never had a control tower, only a flight service station where pilots could call for weather information.

Cariseo said the NTSB isn't ready to blame the accident on the lack of a control tower.

"We're looking into that issue along with other things," he said. "There also have been horrific crashes at big airports with plenty of air traffic controllers."

He cited the November 22, 1994, crash at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis. A TWA jet clipped a Cessna, killing both people aboard the smaller plane.

So far, the Quincy accident hasn't been enough to make the FAA re-evaluate its benefit-cost formula. Spokesperson Kathy Higgins said FAA officials are awaiting the results of the investigation and recommendations from the NTSB.