By now, you’ve all seen the pictures of the “Redneck Air Traffic Control Tower”. At least 15 of you have sent the pictures to me. Yes, it is for real, and yes I’ve been in it.
It is at the Opa Locka airport outside of Miami. The camper/tower cab is a regular thing they drag out for air shows and emergencies so the FAA has some of these on hand. The old tower was condemned for safety reasons and they have put up this one as a temporary tower until the new one is built (2009 or so). The pilots are upset about it because at only 30′ up, the controllers can’t see everything like they could in the old tower. The controllers are upset about it because they have to climb a ladder to get in to it. The city is upset because it does not meet any building code whatsoever. The FAA doesn’t have to meet local building codes.
The first time I was at the old tower, Shawn told me it was the closest thing to haunted you’ll ever see. It creaked and groaned, it looked like it was going to fall down around us. It was one of the only elevators that I honestly thought would fall when we got on it. I took the stairs back down and when I went outside, I found myself on the runway side of things, not the parking lot. I had to go out 40-50 yards and wave up at the controllers to get back inside and back to the truck. It was a good thing it wasn’t dark out yet or they would have never seen me.
The warehouse attached to the old tower looked like something you’d see in a Mel Gibson film. Not the new “Religious-Gibson” but the old “Mad Max/Riggs-Gibson”. It’s an old abandoned warehouse that I’m sure was used for torture or smuggling or anything equally as dangerous…
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