We know for a fact that any mishap, be it a gear up landing incident or a
real accident that the field will be closed anywhere from half an hour to a
couple of hours. There are a dozen or so airports within spitting distance
of Ripon, and I'd sure prefer to be sitting at one of them monitoring 120.7
than boring holes around Rush or Green Lake, burning up fuel and wasting
engine time. Not to mention the very real chance of a midair in that
gaggle. Just say that there has been an aircraft mishap on the field and
I'll peel off of the inbound right now.

That's all we need -- just a little information and we can deal with it as
we see fit.

Jim




For that
info to be useful, you'd have to know how long it's going to take to
clear
up. I'd wager the controllers did not know that.


That info gives pilots of average or better intelligence an idea of how
long the airport will be closed. Then they can decide if they're better
off continuing to hold or diverting to another airport and coming back
later.