Wed, Mar 07, 2012
Tornadoes Damaged Nearly Every Airplane Based At The Facility
Severe weather that ripped across the country Friday has caused the temporary closure of Paulding Northwest Atlanta Airport (KPUJ), as tornadic-force winds severely damaged the terminal building and hangar, and destroyed 18 of the 23 planes sheltered there.
Airport Director Blake Swafford said early in the week that he hoped that the closure would be short-lived, according to a report in the Marietta Daily Journal. But there has not yet been an official estimate on the extent of the damage, which Swafford thinks will be in the range of $5 million.
As of Monday, crews had not been able to reach two of the airplanes in the hangar, which was described as being "tossed around" by the winds, because the structure was unsafe. Fuel that had been spilled from the damaged airplanes had been contained.
The airport authority has insurance on the buildings, but Dallas, GA, Mayor Boyd Austin said individual airplane owners will be responsible for the damage to their aircraft. Austin, a member of the Paulding County Airport Authority, said that he did not believe that the airport would have any liability for the individual aircraft.
Aircraft that would normally land at Paulding are being directed to McCollum airport in Cobb County, which escaped damage from Friday's storms. Paulding is located about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta, and according to its website "was designed to accommodate the rapid growth in both private and corporate aircraft operations over the next fifty years. The arrival and departure procedures for the airport’s VFR and IFR flights are seamless due to its prime location just outside and underneath Atlanta’s busy, Class Bravo airspace." The airport, the newest in the metro Atlanta area and the first new airport in Georgia in 30 years, opened in 2008 as a reliever for business jets and GA airplanes.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that just nine days before the storm, a second hangar under construction collapsed, resulting in the death of one construction worker.
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