STATE : Pilot Finds Airport Lights Out
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PALMDALE — The lights were out and nobody was home.
A behind-schedule America West flight trying to land at the Palmdale Regional Airport was forced to circle the desert for 30 minutes early Monday while a pilot tried to contact someone on the ground who could turn on the airport’s runway lights.
It seems that personnel at the airport, including those in the control tower, had all gone home, thinking no more flights were coming in.
Eventually, the pilot contacted a control tower at an Air Force production facility that leases its runways to the airport in this city 60 miles north of Los Angeles. A security guard was dispatched to turn on the runway lights, and the propeller plane, with 10 passengers aboard, landed safely.
Palmdale Airport Manager Chuck Zemen blamed the mix-up on the airline, saying it didn’t follow set procedures.
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