Meigs Field enhances public safety & security
(click to enlarge)
Key Benefits
 | Air Search & Rescue
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| Critical Medical Transport
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| Disaster Relief
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| Air Traffic Control
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| Collision Avoidance
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| Airspace Access Control |
To learn more about how Meigs Field
benefits public safety, read:
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Safety and Security
Meigs Field saves lives.
From homeland security to disaster relief to emergency
response to aviation safety: the central location of Meigs minimizes
response times and provides unparalleled benefits to the residents of
Chicago. Meigs Field is both indispensable and utterly irreplaceable by any
other airport.
In addition to being an integral part of Chicago’s
emergency response plan, coordination of the safety and security activities
at Meigs under the Chicago Emergency Communications Center will enable even
faster and more efficient city-wide response. Helicopters from Meigs Field
rescue Chicagoans from burning high-rises, rescue stranded boaters, and pull
potential drowning victims from the lake. Meigs also serves as the critical
care medical transport (“medevac”) and organ donor transfer location for
many city hospitals, saving more lives.
As an additional benefit, the Meigs peninsula also
provides a safe and secure area for arrival of the President of the United
States and other visiting dignitaries.
This proposal offers safety and security benefits that no
lakefront park ever has before:
| Homeland Security and Disaster Relief - Imagine
if a fully loaded airliner had been flown into the Sears Tower on
September 11th, 2001. Rescue helicopters from Meigs Field could have
arrived on the scene in minutes. Similar helicopters rescued over 100
people from the top of the World Trade Centers during the first terrorist
bombing. In addition, the runway at Meigs is equipped to handle fully
loaded military cargo planes making it an essential part of any emergency
preparedness plan for Chicago. In the event of disaster, Meigs could save
thousands of lives.
Now, consider a biological attack on downtown Chicago. Consider the
difference between trucks paralyzed in gridlock between Midway or O’Hare
and downtown and C-130 cargo planes bringing medical supplies and
equipment directly to downtown and evacuating Chicagoans on return trips.
Meigs Field is an essential part of Chicago’s emergency preparedness.
Meigs can save lives.
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| Emergency Response – Whether responding to a
fire at the growing number of Chicago high rises or rescuing a drowning
boater or swimmer, there is no better or more central location than Meigs
Field. Chicago Fire Department and U.S. Coast Guard rescue helicopters
flying from Meigs provide the fastest response and can save minutes – when
seconds count… saving lives.
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| Critical Medical Transport – Meigs is the
closest medical evacuation center, both inbound and outgoing for a number
of Chicago’s hospitals. For the critically injured, even seconds count and
Meigs can save minutes – saving lives. The Illinois Association of Air and
Critical Care Transport has strongly protested the potential loss of the
only airport/heliport serving many downtown hospitals. Without Meigs,
critically ill and injured patients and transplant organs suffer delays
that can threaten health and lives.
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| Civil Air Patrol Base – The Civil Air Patrol is
the civilian Auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force and organized along military
lines. The addition of a Civil Air Patrol base will provide additional
eyes watching and protecting the Lake Michigan shoreline and entire
Chicago area, at no cost to the City of Chicago. The Civil Air Patrol
squadron will provide surveillance, search and rescue services for all of
Chicago and the lakefront.
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| Other elements:
 | Coast Guard Auxiliary Air Station |
| Air Traffic Safety |
| Eyes on the Skies |
| General Aviation Security |
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