Dead bodies fear over Coventry Airport
11.02.06
Objectors to Coventry Airport's new terminal fear it could increase the chances of 'dead bodies tumbling out of the Warwickshire skies'.
Five 'air proximity reports' (airprox) were filed by pilots or air traffic controllers around the Baginton site last year - meaning they felt aircraft were dangerously close to each other. Birmingham had no such reports last year, despite having many more flights.
There were 89 airprox incidents in the UK in 2005, and the Coventry airport reports, all involving Thomsonfly Boeing 737s and light aircraft, are currently being investigated by the Civil Aviation Authority. In 2003, the last year for which full statistics are available, 83 percent were assessed as having no risk of collision.
But this failed to ease the concerns of Campaign Against Expansion at Coventry Airport spokesman Archy Muir. He said: 'It's official - Coventry airport is the 'near-miss' capital of the UK. There is clearly an inherent problem at Coventry Airport, which the current public inquiry needs to examine very carefully.
'As things stand, to permit expansion at Coventry airport would make it ever more likely that we will one day witness dead bodies tumbling out of the Warwickshire skies.'
Coventry Airport spokeswoman Sue Lindsay declined to comment on the 2005 figures, as these have not yet been fully investigated. But she pointed out that only one of 79 airprox reports filed nationally in 2004 referred to Coventry, and was later found to have had no risk of collision. She added that the airport complies with all relevant safety policies.
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