Wind Damage to Airport: Lessons Learned

Abstract

High winds at a maximum speed of 96 mph (43 m/s) hit the Columbia Regional Airport in Missouri on June 17, 1985, causing heavy damage to parked aircraft, hangars, building glass windows, automobiles, and so on. A post‐disaster investigation reveals a wealth of information, such as the finding that the storm was a microburst, and not a tornado as it was originally classified, that the aircraft tiedown system was flawed, that a gravel road was the principal source of damage to cars parked at the airport terminal, that the gust factor of this type of wind is much higher than normally assumed for structural design, and so on. Additional findings are that the atmospheric pressure of the storm measured was greatly affected by the wind‐generated pressure of the building in which the barometer was housed, and that west is the predominant direction of high winds at this airport. Lessons learned from the investigation can be very helpful in reducing future wind damage at airports and in improving understanding of weather data pertaining to severe storms and how to use these data in engineering practice.