Las Vegas NowHenderson Residents Worry About Their Airport

Henderson Residents Worry About Their Airport

While the investigations into two deadly plane crashes continue at the North Las Vegas Airport, residents near another airport are worried one day they will be in the same situation.

Henderson Executive Airport is near large communities where there's fear a plane crash may be in their future. They say this is dangerous and one day may be deadly.

"It's just an accident waiting to happen as long as those planes are flying over our homes," said Seven Hills resident and President of Capistrano Homeowners Association Ron Meek.

Meek and his neighbors, Laird and Jeanne Konker, look up and don't like what they see.

"They've gotten so low, I've even waved," said Jeanne.

All three love the friendly skies. Ron is a pilot who's even done some wing walking. Laird was an aeronautical engineer before he flew for the FBI and Jeanne works as a flight attendant. But they say the sky above Seven Hills hasn't been too friendly lately.

"They're just so low. I feel like I can reach up there and touch the plane," said Jeanne.

"It's just like what happened basically at North Las Vegas. If you don't have enough altitude, you can't get to a safe place to put an airplane down with a catastrophic failure," said Laird.

"If they don't get those airplanes off the top of our homes, it's not a matter of if, it's just when," said Ron.

Meek says planes from Henderson regularly violate altitude rules, flying well below the required 1,000 feet above residential areas, "They ask them over at the airport, as a courtesy, to fly to St. Rose Parkway before heading east or west. What you're seeing is those planes take off and when they get to the end of the runway, they're still approximately a mile from St. Rose Parkway, and they start making their turn, and that is directly over the top of our homes."

In July a private plane trying to land in Henderson made an emergency landing on Maryland Parkway. While no one was injured, they fear the next incident could be different, as long as these planes are getting too close for comfort.

"You can actually see their faces and it's a real concern for me for the safety and welfare of our community," said Jeanne.

Clark County officials say the Henderson Airport had some 80,000 operations last year. That's far less than North Las Vegas, but it's also the fastest growing airport here.

It's not an FAA requirement that the planes avoid that neighborhood. Federal regulations will have to change for that to be done.

Email your comments to Reporter Aaron Drawhorn