Creswell dispute turns in skydivers’ favor
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 10:08 AM PDT
CRESWELL (AP) — The burden of proof now falls on the city of Creswell in its argument that skydiving is unsafe at the local airport.The Federal Aviation Administration, in a letter sent to the city last month, said it’s up to airport management to decide whether skydiving is permitted. To ban it, however, the city must prove it is unsafe.The FAA’s letter came as something of a surprise because the city had been using the agency’s previous decisions as the basis for its ban on skydiving. The FAA’s May 22 letter said those old decisions were no longer the agency’s official position. The letter from FAA Airport Manager Donna Taylor adds that unless the city is able to prove that dropping skydivers on airport property is unsafe, it will be in violation of one of its federal grants by discriminating against an FAA-sanctioned activity, The Register-Guard newspaper reported.
