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Two airplane crashes highlighted concerns that Sprinbank residences have expressed over the last couple years about the new development going in around the Springbank Airport.
Back in 2012, the Springbank community pushed against Rocky View Council’s decision to provide a development permit to Bordeaux Developments despite its proximity to the airport.
“There are people who are beyond incensed,” said Jerry Arshinoff, Rocky View councilor for the area.
Some of the frustration stems from the new development, Harmony, being a high-density residential area with 3,500 homes, a golf course and business and light industrial areas that will bring more of the urban bustle they moved to Springbank to avoid.
Others do not understand how homes can be built so close to Canada’s 12th busiest airport when the Airport Authority advised both Bordeaux and RVC that a development so close to the airport was inadvisable due to safety and noise concerns, with members of the Springbank Airport Business and Pilots Association also expressing frustration with the development.
“These are people who are experts in aviation,” said Arshinoff, who disliked how their advise was ignored. “The major concern is safety. Planes do crash.”
This was exemplified twice in recent weeks. The first incident occurred around 10 a.m. on Apr. 30 when the front landing gear did not deploy.
When the two instructors in the plane could not get the nose gear to deploy they attempted to perform an emergency landing. The main gear ended up collapsing and the plane skidded a few hundred feet with no injuries or major damage sustained.
On May 1 around 3:15 p.m. Cochrane RCMP, Rockyview Fire Services and EMS responded to a plane crash near the entrance to Calaway Park, which is on the opposite side of the Trans Canada Highway from the Springbank Airport.
Springbank Airport and Calaway Park dispute who gave the 39 year old pilot, who sustained minor injuries, permission to take off from the park’s parking lot, but residents are more concerned with why such a thing would be allowed with an airport across the road and when there are two schools nearby.
Neither accident occurred in areas that would have threatened the hypothetical residents of Harmony.
Bordeaux was unavailable for comment on what safety measures they have in place for the Harmony community that would mitigate the dangers of being so close to the airport.
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