Airport Gets New Customer

Tue., April 11, 2000

From Staff

The U.S. Forest Service has signed a 50-year lease with the Port of Moses Lake to use its airport as a state base for fire-fighting air tankers.

For more than 25 years, air tankers for Washington state have flown from Wenatchee’s Pangborn Memorial Field. The switch to Grant County Airport occurs in May 2001.

Workers later this year begin constructing a $3million center to hold chemicals plus space for offices, pilots and ground crews.

The change to Moses Lake is driven by federal guidelines requiring longer runways to handle larger and heavier aircraft, said Sonny O’Neal, Okanogan and Wenatchee National Forests supervisor. The Grant County runway is 2-1/2 miles long, more than twice the length of Pangborn.

“Moses Lake is also centrally located, has an FAA air control tower and has sophisticated crash rescue equipment,” said O’Neal.

The new guidelines will mean most fire-fighting tankers will be C-130 cargo planes holding 3,000 to 4,000 gallons of chemical retardant.

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Airport Gets New Customer

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

Rob Curley

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