Napa Co. Airport Open Despite Tower Damage From Earthquake

Although Sunday’s 6.0-magnitude earthquake damaged Napa County Airport’s control tower, the airport north of American Canyon is open today, the airport’s general manager said.

The 820-acre airport at 2030 Airport Road was inspected around 7 a.m. Sunday and opened a half-hour later, general manager Doreen Stockdale said. “The runways were intact,” Stockdale said.

A few planes were delayed in taking off, Stockdale said. The airport serves general, not commercial aviation.

The quake blew out most of the windows of the control tower located on the south side of the airport and the tower is unusable, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.

“It could take several weeks to get new windows manufactured and installed,” Gregor said.

He said there is no obvious damage to the structure, but the FAA will have an engineering assessment done to ensure it is safe. Equipment inside the tower is being protected from wind and other weather, Gregor said.

“For the time being, the airport will operate as it does when the control tower is closed at night,” Gregor said.

He said pilots will get takeoff and landing clearances from Oakland International Airport’s control tower and communicate with each other on the uniform airport frequency to broadcast their positions and intentions.

“We are working to set up a temporary tower until the permanent tower is repaired,” Gregor said.

Controllers use temporary towers that are cabs on the top of trailers, Gregor said.

The temporary towers are used at air shows, wildfire fighting operations and when permanent towers at general aviation airports are unstable from damage, modernization and other causes, he said.

The airport in the Airport Industrial Park near the intersection of state Highways 12 and 29 has commercial and corporate tenants, including the California Highway Patrol, and 179 short-term hanger agreements, according to its website.