Congratulations are in order to the seven recipients of our Ninth Annual Airports Safety Award Program. The FAA Great Lakes Region annually recognizes airports, organizations and individuals that make significant contributions to safety. Award recipients were selected by Great Lakes Airport Certification Safety Staff and presented during the 25th Annual Great Lakes Region (AGL) Airports Conference, on November 5, 2009. We are pleased to congratulate the following recipients:
Bismarck Municipal Airport (BIS) – Airport Safety Award.
The management and staff at the Bismarck Municipal Airport are responsible for the accomplishment of significant safety enhancements that have improved safety for all aeronautical users at the airport. A few of those achievements include :
creating a 24-hour airport operations department, constructing a service road around the north end of the airport to reduce the potential for runway incursions, improving the ATCT line of sight with Taxiway C through several phased projects and providing leadership in the State of North Dakota with respect to safety during winter operations. Additionally, BIS has received national recognition for their snow and ice control program by receiving the Balchen/Post “Honorable Mention Award.”
Bemidji Regional Airport (BJI) – Airport Safety Award.
The management and staff at the Bemidji Regional Airport are responsible for the accomplishment of significant safety enhancements that have improved safety for all aeronautical users at the airport. BJI has accomplished the following initiatives: mitigation of a runway incursion hot-spot by removing a midfield taxiway that crossed through the intersection of two runways, correction of non-standard safety areas by shifting runways to meet full dimensional safety standards, completed installation of a 10’ wildlife fence to preclude deer from entering the airfield, complete replacement of electrical facilities including installation of new back-up generators to support all airfield operations and systems and the replacement of all airfield signage.
Mr. Bruce Applebach (Gerald R. Ford Int’l), Mr. Ray Hoffelt (Chicago O’Hare Int’l), Mr. Kevin Klein (Cherry Capital Airport) and Mr. Paul Schiko (Minneapolis-St. Paul Int’l)- received an Airport Partnership Award.
These four individuals participated in the FAA’s Takeoff and Landing Performance Assessment (TALPA) Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) and contributed to the resolution of numerous safety issues in the area of airport winter operations. Their participation has been crucial to the enhancement of safety during winter operations at airports across the country.
Mr. Jim Krieger, Quality Assurance Manager, ORD ATCT, received an Airport Partnership Award.
Under Mr. Krieger’s tenure, the quality assurance team at ORD ATCT has been responsible for numerous event reviews of runway incursions resulting in numerous initiatives that reflect a total team effort to focus on improving safety and efficiency at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and Midway Airport.
