Overgrown trees create nighttime safety hazard at El Dorado County airport
GEORGETOWN — The Georgetown municipal airport is now unsafe to operate at night over concerns of overgrown trees near the runway.
The El Dorado County Grand Jury issued a report calling the airport safety problem a "disaster waiting to happen."
The airport is such a safety concern that the state is suspending overnight operations.
Pilot Scott Herring showed CBS13 the problem in his Cessna plane.
"If someone hits those trees, it's going to be a disaster. It's not a walk away," Herring said.
He used his own plane to illustrate the concerns, taking off and then landing over the trees that have grown so tall that pilots have to change their approach to the runway.
"What we have to do now in Georgetown is we have to go up and over and then down, and when you go down steeper than normal, you're going to pick up some speed," Herring said.
Doug Rice is a vice president of the California Pilots Association. I asked him about the grand jury report calling out El Dorado County.
"The headline of this grand jury report is 'Georgetown airport - a disaster waiting to happen.' You agree with that?" Large said.
"Yes," Rice said. "Very simply put, those trees are a hazard to navigation."
The scathing grand jury report reads, in part, that El Dorado County is "up to now, failing to protect the safety of its citizens by not properly addressing the airport's hazardous conditions."
Now with the nighttime operations suspended, Herring's airplane business is impacted.
"It's kind of like they closed the freeway when you want to go home," Herring said.
CBS13 reached out to El Dorado County for their response to the grand jury report. They did not immediately reply.