Tri-State Airport

Tri-State Airport (IATA: HTS, ICAO: KHTS, FAA LID: HTS), also known as Milton J. Ferguson Field, is a public-use airport in Wayne County, West Virginia, United States.^[1] The airport is located three nautical miles (4 mi, 6 km) south of the central business district of Huntington, West Virginia,^[1] near the cities of Ceredo and Kenova. Owned by the Tri-State Airport Authority,^[1] it serves the cities of Huntington, Ashland, Kentucky, and Ironton, Ohio. It has heavy use for general aviation, but is also served by three commercial airlines.

As per Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 115,263 passenger boardings (enplanements) in calendar year 2010, an increase of 10.9% from the 103,972 enplanements in 2009.^[2] This airport is included in the FAA's National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a primary commercial service airport (more than 10,000 enplanements per year).^[3]

Facilities and aircraft

The airport covers an area of 1,300 acres (526 ha) at an elevation of 828 feet (252 m) above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 12/30 with an asphalt surface measuring 7,016 by 150 feet (2,138 x 46 m).^[1]

For the 12-month period ending December 31, 2010, the airport had 13,306 aircraft operations, an average of 36 per day: 68% general aviation, 24% air taxi, 4% scheduled commercial, and 4% military. At that time there were 45 aircraft based at this airport: 69% single-engine, 18% multi-engine, 11% jet, and 2% helicopter.^[1]

Airlines and destinations

Top destinations

Incidents

• On November 14, 1970, Southern Airways Flight 932, a chartered Southern Airways DC-9 commercial jet, crashed into a hill just short of Runway 12. The flight was carrying the thirty-seven members of the Marshall University "Thundering Herd" football squad, eight members of the coaching staff, and twenty-five boosters. There were no survivors.^[5]

• On the morning of August 5, 1987 a Piedmont Airlines Boeing 737-200 on a regularly scheduled flight struck deer after reaching V1 during the takeoff roll. One engine sustained damage and subsequently flamed out, and the aircraft immediately returned to the airport.

• On June 16, 1994, a Fokker F28-4000 operated by USAir suffered a hard landing after which the right main landing gear collapsed. The jet slid to a stop causing significant damage to the aircraft and the runway. There were minor injuries during the landing and evacuation. The aircraft was repaired after several weeks at Tri-State and re-entered service later that year.

• On January 8, 2003, Air Midwest Flight 5481 operating as US Airways Express Flight 5481 (N233YV), crashed at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, killing all 21 aboard. It was determined that the accident was caused primarily by the faulty adjustment of an elevator cable - work that was performed just 2 days earlier at a facility at Tri-State Airport - by a mechanic that had never worked on that type of aircraft.^[6]

• On August 17, 2006, Rima Qayyum, a woman of Pakistani origin residing within the US, was prevented from boarding a plane when it was found she had banned materials in her hand luggage. While these initially tested positive for explosive residue, subsequent analysis revealed that the liquids were harmless.^[7] Later testing revealed that it was just water and soap ^[8] The woman had purchased a one-way ticket on a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina.^[9] In 2008, Qayyum filed a federal law suit against US Airways for violating her civil rights.^[10]

• On January 30, 2009, a Piper PA-34-200T Seneca crashed in the vicinity of KHTS during a significant snow event. The pilot was attempting to divert to KHTS due to a fuel emergency. All six aboard were killed.^[11]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} FAA Airport Master Record for HTS (Form 5010 PDF). Federal Aviation Administration. Effective 25 August 2011.
2. ^ "Primary, Non-primary Commercial Service, and General Aviation Airports (by State) (PDF, 5.4 MB)". CY 2010 Passenger Boarding and All-Cargo Data. Federal Aviation Administration. 4 October 2011. http://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_capacity/passenger_allcargo_stats/passenger/media/cy10_all_enplanements.pdf. 
3. ^ "2011–2015 NPIAS Report, Appendix A (PDF, 2.03 MB)". 2011–2015 National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems. Federal Aviation Administration. 4 October 2010. http://www.faa.gov/airports/planning_capacity/npias/reports/media/2011/npias_2011_appA.pdf. 
4. ^ "Tri-State/Milton J. Ferguson Field (HTS)". Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), U.S. Department of Transportation. June 2011. http://www.transtats.bts.gov/airports.asp?pn=1&Airport=HTS&Airport_Name=Ashland,%20WV:%20Tri%20State/Walker%20Long%20Field&carrier=FACTS. 
5. ^ "The Crash of Southern Airways Flight 932". Check-Six.com. http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/MarshallU-Main.htm. 
6. ^ "Poor Maintenance Cited as Primary Cause of Air Midwest Crash". Air Safety Week. March 1, 2004. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0UBT/is_9_18/ai_113773896. 
7. ^ "No bomb found in US airport alert". BBC. August 18, 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_5260000/newsid_5261900/5261984.stm. 
8. ^ "Bottles leading to airport closure held water, soap". Charleston Daily Mail. August 25, 2006. http://www.dailymail.com/story/News/+/2006082524/Bottles+leading+to+airport+closure+held+water,+soap/. 
9. ^ "No explosives in US airport alert". BBC. August 18, 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5261456.stm. 
10. ^ "Lawsuit filed in 2006 airport evacuation". Huntington Herald-Dispatch. September 4, 2008. http://www.herald-dispatch.com/homepage/x518241959/Lawsuit-filed-in-06-airport-evacuation. 
11. ^ "Crash victims possibly from Chicago". Huntington Herald-Dispatch. February 1, 2009. http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/x181485673/FAA-Six-people-dead-in-plane-crash. 

External links

• Tri-State Airport, official web site
• Huntington/Tri-State Airport from 2008 West Virginia DOT Airport Directory
• Aerial image as of 14 March 1995 from USGS The National Map
• FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective 15 December 2011
• FAA Terminal Procedures for HTS, effective 15 December 2011
• Resources for this airport:
  • AirNav airport information for KHTS
  • ASN accident history for HTS
  • FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
  • NOAA/NWS latest weather observations
  • SkyVector aeronautical chart for KHTS
  • FAA current HTS delay information