Two Eastern Air Express jets involved in deportation activity at the Akron-Canton Regional Airport bumped wings Monday and had to be parked for inspection, bringing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity at the airport in Green to a halt for much of the week.
Following the collision, operations were moved to Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport for at least three days, but online flight-tracker applications show that flights had returned to Akron-Canton on Friday.
Details about deportation flights are hard to obtain. ICE has not answered any reporter’s questions about Akron-Canton activities for more than a month, nor has Eastern Airlines, the operator of Eastern Air Express. Neither responded to new questions Thursday, nor did the independent contractor that services charter flights at Youngstown-Warren.
Reporting on what has become a major deportation hub at Akron-Canton Regional Airport has relied on the airport’s governing authority, almost daily observations by a reporter, online flight tracking software and deportation tracking groups.
Deportation flights transferred to Akron-Canton from Youngstown-Warren in April, when the Trumbull County airport cordoned off a portion of its longest runway for major repairs. About 180 flights connected to Homeland Security deportation activity have occurred at Akron-Canton since then.
Akron-Canton vice president and spokesperson Lisa Dalpiaz said over the summer that they understood that the deportation flights were to be temporary while repairs at Youngstown-Warren were completed. The Youngstown runway was reopened at the end of August.
Dalpiaz said that the local airport authority, as a public agency, cannot deny access to carriers.
The airport charges landing fees but otherwise has no business relationship with ICE deportation activity or the charter companies operating the flights. Instead, the planes are serviced and detainees board at the Avflight facility on West Airport Drive. Avflight is an independent fixed base operator based in Ann Arbor, Mich., and its primary business is serving charter companies and private planes that don’t use the terminal.
The Eastern Air Express mishap occurred after an exceptionally busy weekend for deportation flights in Green.
According to Dalpiaz, a preliminary Ohio State Patrol report and reporter’s observations, an Eastern Air Express Boeing 737 began to taxi in front of the Avflight facility for a planned takeoff scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Monday. However, at about 10:20 a.m. the right winglet — the upturned end of a wing — of the moving plane touched the left horizontal stabilizer on another Eastern Air Express B737 parked nose-first on the tarmac.
A horizontal stabilizer is the short wing on the tail of the plane.
The state patrol could only confirm that two planes collided and that there is an open investigation.
Detainees were seen getting off the plane afterward. The FlightAware aircraft tracking application shows that a few hours later two Air Wisconsin jets arrived from Appleton, Wis. Air Wisconsin also provides charter service for Homeland Security deportation operations. The two Air Wisconsin CRJ200 jets departed about two hours after landing for Alexandria, La., site of a major ICE detention facility and hub for deportation flights out of the country.
It’s not known whether the detainees on the Eastern jet were placed on the Air Wisconsin jets.
As of Thursday afternoon, both disabled Eastern planes were parked at the northwest corner of the airport along Greensburg Road. Eastern did not respond immediately to questions about how soon the planes will fly again.
The collision followed a hectic weekend with most flights to and from Alexandria. One of the involved planes had arrived late the evening before, directly from Tapachula, Mexico.
From Friday, Sept. 25 to Monday, eight Eastern Air Express and Air Wisconsin flights departed, according to FlightAware. Both companies and Global X have frequented the Avflight facility as prison buses and county prisoner vans from near Toledo, Youngstown and Middletown arrived to transfer detainees for departure.
On Friday, an Eastern Air Express aircraft landed and departed in the morning; another was scheduled to arrive in the evening.
Meanwhile, the Akron-Canton Airport Authority is waiting to get paid by the three air charter companies. A cumulative report shows the three have not paid landing fees since they were first invoiced in June and now owe $46,153.
Only Air Wisconsin has inquired about the invoices, according to James Krum, vice president for finance.
Eastern has an outstanding bill of $41,540 through August. Global’s cumulative invoice is $3,034 and Air Wisconsin’s $1,579. Landing fees are based on the weight of the planes and frequency of landings.
Doug Oplinger is a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and former reporter and editor at the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be emailed at oplingerdoug@gmail.com.