The deadly March 3 devastation in Alabama also claimed all 27 aircraft on the ground at Weedon Field (KEUF) in Eufaula, just across the Georgia border and about 60 miles southeast of Montgomery. Some 30 T-hangars were obliterated around 5 p.m. local time, along with the mostly single-engine aircraft inside. Two of three individual corporate hangars also collapsed, damaging the HondaJet and Challenger 350 stored inside.
According to Lacey McCall, airport operations manager, both jets, owned and operated by local businesses, were damaged beyond repair. The Challenger, owned by a former car dealer, was also used for charter operations through Georgia-based Flightworks.
However, the Eufaula Jet Center FBO and the airport restaurant survived, according to McCall, and the 5,000-ft runway was also undamaged. But she told AIN the on-airport VOR and ASOS were destroyed. KEUF has both RNAV and VOR/VOR-DME approaches.
The airport is owned by the city, but is leased to two partners who operate the Jet Center. “The name on the side of the airport building is Eufaula Municipal Airport, but everyone calls it the Eufaula Jet Center,” McCall said.
She added that the city was responsible for insuring the airport, and the Jet Center expects to recover. “We’ll rebuild it—only stronger,” she said.