Runway damage noticed after Bush planes leave

[Nambe]

Associated Press

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Damage has prompted the shutdown of a runway at the Las Cruces airport where three airplanes accompanying President Bush landed last week.

The damage was noticed during a safety inspection Thursday afternoon, hours after two C-17s and a C-130 transporting equipment such as the president's helicopter and cars took off, said airport operations specialist Danny Valdez.

Valdez confirmed the runway appeared to be fine before the airplanes accompanying the president arrived, but airport officials couldn't confirm the cause of the damage. ..
Ride Don’t Drive * * It’s Global Cool

[jeff30997]

1. Everywhere he goes...

Catastrophe follows.

[dbt]

2. No, no. It's catastrophic success!

Somebody's brother-in-law will make some good money repaving the runway.

:evilgrin:
dbt

[Spiffarino]

23. Oh, you are bad

It's what we like about you.

[Fovea]

19. That is because Dubya is a catastrophic success!

And a miserable failure.

[LauraK]

3. Two C-17s and a C-130 plus Air Force One.

Somebody tell me how many square feet/miles of cargo space that is. I stood inside a C-130 and felt like an ant. That boggles my little mind.

[Merlin]

4. It was for the limos. n/t

.

[yardwork]

15. It's for the "supporters"

They're flown into every campaign stop that shrub makes, to make it look like there are adoring masses of people at each stop.

[MaineDem]

5. And I hope the campaign is paying for this transport!

Somehow I doubt it. :(

[2Design]

8. your tax dollars at work... I am sure he wrote it off as a business trip

[clydefrand]

10. Yes, and we're the campaign!

You don't really think the repugs will pay for anything that they can get from the middle income tax payers, do you?

[RivetJoint]

9. You must be a VERY small

person. A C-130 is a relatively small cargo plane. When configured for pax, it can hold about 120.

[Enraged_Ape]

6. Scientific proof that Bush destroys everything he comes near

This man is a human tornado. I wonder if bugs and worms crawl out of the ground around him and scamper away, like they do with the Nazgul in The Lord of the Rings.

[LiberalEsto]

7. Some of them drooled

and the venom from their rethuglican fangs dripped onto the runway and dissolved the macadam where it landed.
That's what caused the runway damage

[JitterbugPerfume]

11. they leave a trail

of pain and distruction where ever they go

that is what they do

[MaineDem]

12. I can't open the link

What kind of damage was done? Fuel leaking??

[Philostopher]

13. WTF?

It's an even dumber thing than it appears, if you think about it.

They used the Las Cruces municipal (civilian) airport to land military planes when they have runways at White Sands Missile Range (seven miles or so from downtown 'Cruces), Fort Bliss Army Base (in El Paso, less than forty miles away) and Holloman Air Force Base (about 60 miles from downtown 'Cruces)? Holloman is a flight training base, or used to be, so planes take off and land from there hundreds of times a week; the runways are, doubtless, in perfect condition an prepared to accept military planes. Hell, they had a spare space shuttle runway there!

I guess they didn't want to have to transport His Highness very far. Perhaps Little George Fauntleroy gets carsick.

[Gloria]

14. It's on the front page of the Repug Las Cruces Sun-News today....

however, they make up for it with an editorial about Bush's "changed agenda since 2000" and a couple of op eds of the conservative slant.

Have I told you how much I HATE THESE PEOPLE????


Ever since I talked to the editor and he told me that 911 "had a silver lining since it brought people together even for a short time" and other inane crap, I've been after this bunch.............

PS...they closed the entrance/exit ramps off I-10 so that people coming in for Edwards' rally later Thursday morning had a problem, too.....

[Gloria]

16. Here's the link to the local report today in the Sun-News.....

http://www.lcsun-news.com/artman/publish/article_8922.shtml

[Cocoa]

17. did Bush pull a "Dave Matthews"?

literally, I mean?

[Radius]

18. C-17 - C-130

can cause damage to airfields not rated to support it.

Very common:
http://www.strategypage.com/gallery/articles/military_photos_200472317.asp


Loadmaster and aircrew are responsible for this. This could have caused a crash.

[burrowowl]

21. Yes

if it was the planes, some buts should get kicked. Especially with other nearby runways able to take the stress.

[napi21]

22. That's what I was thinking when I read the starting post.

I don't know for sure, but this airport doesn't sound like one that gets a lot of heavy duty air traffic. Fully loaded, those planes require a particular rating.

I do find it very hard to believe that the aircrew wouldn't have checked that out first though.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

24. Las Cruces airport weight limitations

Las Cruces runway weight limitations:

Single wheel: 70,000 lbs
Double wheel: 120,000 lbs


C-17 Specs:

Empty weight: 277,000 lbs
Maximum takeoff gross weight: 585,000 lbs


They used a Boeing 757-200 as Air Force One for this trip. Here are the specs:

Empty weight: 127,800 lbs
Maximum takeoff weight: 220,000 lbs


From the Las Cruces Sun News:

It will cost at least $1 million to repair runway damage that may have been done during President Bush’s visit to Las Cruces last week. A deep set of Boeing 757-sized tire ruts highlighted by dark skid marks extends more than half a mile down Runway 22 at the Las Cruces International Airport.

Officials with the city and the State Aviation Office, inspecting the runway Monday, said it’s still too early to say for sure, but it appears the damage was caused during Thursday morning’s landing of the president’s C-32A, a military version of Boeing’s 757-200, flown by a pilot with the U.S. Air Force’s Presidential Airlift Group. Facilities Director Brian Denmark said city staff made it clear to the pilots and the president’s travel team that the airport, and particularly Runway 22, could not handle the weight of a 757.

“They did advise them of the facts as it relates to the runway,” said Denmark, perusing the damage Monday.

Wayne Stevenson, an airport tenant and a pilot, said he overheard city staff arguing with the pilots who “wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

---------

The * administration's arrogance knows no limits.

[Nambe]

25. IMO the runway was built too strong.

I wonder if they have insurance or if they can sue the government.

[burrowowl]

26. If the airport warned them

the pilots are guilty of gross negligence. Damn. What idiots! The planes should be inspected as well.

[Eurobabe]

20. It's CLINTON's penis' fault

as usual. The Democrats did it.