Accident repairs at the county’s airport total $1.4 million | News, sports, jobs

Submitted file photo A plume of smoke is pictured after a plane crashed Aug. 5 at the Chautauqua County Airport in Jamestown. The county will accept $1.4 million from the county’s insurance company to cover damages caused by the accident.

Chautauqua County will receive a $1.4 million insurance check for repairs to the county’s airport in Jamestown following an accident last summer.

During the Legislature’s Public Utilities Committee meeting, Airport Manager Sharon Fischer was present and discussed the accident that occurred on August 5.

On that date, a Cessna Citation It crashed at Jamestown Airport. Both the pilot and co-pilot survived the crash. The pilot, later identified as Orchard Park businessman Gerald Buchheit, was seriously injured, while the co-pilot suffered minor injuries.

At the committee meeting, Fischer said the plane had about 1,300 gallons of fuel when it left Dunkirk. The plane caught fire and had to make an emergency landing. Some of the plane’s fuel had contaminated the ground at Jamestown Airport. That soil had to be removed, which was approximately 1,300 cubic yards.

Some of the fuel spilled and burned into the sidewalk. That required restoring about 1,200 feet of the airport runway. Fischer noted that some of the fuel actually flowed through an active drain, causing it to spread far and wide. But in the end they were able to clean it up.

“The DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) was very happy with what we did,” she said.

The entire amount was covered by insurance. Fischer explained that the county’s insurance will initially cover the costs, but they will turn to the pilot’s insurance for reimbursement. That could be resolved through lawsuits.

Fischer noted that when an accident occurred at the Jamestown Airport in 2023, the county did not have to claim any insurance reimbursement. “It was turned off, in some kind of wooden area. There were no problems. This time we did that (claim property damage),” she said.

A resolution to amend the airport’s budget to accept the funds was unanimously approved by the full Legislature at its November meeting.

In other airport news, lawmakers agreed to spend $28,085 on a new freezer at the airport restaurant. The restaurant is currently rented out by Basil & Bones. They want to open an additional location in the spring and have requested that the freezer be replaced because the current one is not working.

The money will come from the province’s American Rescue Plan Act funds, which were given to the province by the federal government following the COVID-19 pandemic. The request was approved unanimously.

There were three other resolutions that had to be changed regarding the airport due to errors when they were originally approved. One was to accept money to reconstruct the terminal building, the other was to accept money for the runway paving rehabilitation and lighting project, and the other was to accept money for testing equipment at the airport .

Lawmaker Bob Scudder, R-Fredonia, voted against all three. He made no comment on his voice. He normally votes against any resolutions accepting money for the county airports if it means the county must continue to operate the airports.