Can Move Into New Tower... With Old Radar

One week after a Florida congresswoman wrote to FAA Administrator Marion Blakey to protest the agency's decision to delay opening the new control tower at New York's Stewart International Airport (SWF) due to a delay in transferring new radar equipment, the agency reversed its decision and told airport officials they can have their new tower... with the old radar.

As Aero-News reported Tuesday, Congresswoman Sue Kelly took the FAA to task for refusing to move the old tower's Terminal Automated Radar Display and Information System (TARDIS) to the new tower, so it could open for the busy summer travel season. The new radar, Kelly said, could then be installed when it's ready.

Russell Chew, chief operating officer at the FAA as well as the head of the Air Traffic Organization, told Kelly Wednesday the agency would approve the move.

"I don't want to impugn the people who are trying to make those decisions, but when we found that the software glitch that you spoke of would take several months to rectify, that's when the decision was changed," Chew told the congresswoman at a Washington hearing on air traffic control modernization Wednesday.

"Can the FAA give Stewart airport and its controllers the permission they need today to move the radar system from the old tower to the new tower until they get what they need in the new system from you later this year?," Kelly asked.

"Yes," Chew responded, without hesitation, according to the Poughkeepsie Journal.

FMI: www.faa.gov, http://suekelly.house.gov/, www.stewartintlairport.com/