On April 12, two more U.S. regional airports were struck by tornadoes, making this the third such occurrence in the past several weeks. As scores of tornadoes ripped through the south from Central Texas through the Carolinas, causing several dozen deaths and millions in property damage, Monroe Regional Airport (MLU), in the northeastern part of Louisiana, and Lowcountry Regional Airport (RBW) in Walterboro, South Carolina, had tornadoes touch down.
At the Avflight FBO—the lone service provider at MLU—the tornado destroyed a 10,000-sq-ft hangar, trapping four Cessna Citations in the wreckage. The nearby FBO terminal on the north side of the airport was undamaged, as were the remaining 80,000 sq ft of aircraft storage, the commercial terminal, tower, and fuel tank farms. Power was quickly restored, and according to airport director Ron Phillips, the airport reopened on Monday afternoon.
At Lowcountry Aviation, one of two FBOs at RBW, a 7,500-sq-ft hurricane-rated hangar collapsed when a Citation CJ3 parked on the other side of the airport was thrown approximately 500 feet into the structure, breaching one of the walls. The company’s large 22,500-sq-ft community hangar, which housed a Gulfstream G280 and a pair of Beechcraft King Airs was unscathed, as was its terminal. Owner Marco Cavazzoni noted its Part 145 repair station and Part 135 charter business are fully operational, as are the FBO and ramp.
RBW manager Tommy Rowe told AIN that while the airport-operated FBO on the other side of the field escaped damage to its brand new 5,400-sq-ft terminal, a 3,750-sq-ft hangar was destroyed along with 11 T-hangars and a 10,000-sq-ft hangar suffered structural damage. Rowe said that several smaller aircraft had been rolled into a ball of unidentifiable debris, part of the 25 light aircraft that were destroyed. The FBO’s fuel farm also suffered damage. While power had yet to be restored, Rowe reopened the airport’s 6,000-foot Runway 5/23 on Monday evening to VFR traffic.
These latest instances follow recent tornado strikes at Jonesboro Municipal Airport in Arkansas and Nashville’s John C. Tune Airport.