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Flights grounded, but spraying continues
Published October 16, 2009
ANGLETON — The crash of an airplane the Brazoria County Mosquito Control District used for spraying has that program temporarily grounded, but vehicular insect spraying is at full blast.
Mosquito counts are increasing, but all 14 of the county’s mosquito-spraying trucks are on the road as often as possible, District Foreman Fran Henderson said.
A pilot was forced to land the county’s 1950s-era Beachcraft piston airplane in a field near the intersection of Highway 36 and FM 2004 after he reportedly clipped a radio tower Oct. 3. The pilot walked away unscathed, but the emergency landing killed two cows and finished the 60-year-old aircraft, Mosquito Control Director Jim Ryan said.
“It’s s total write-off,” Ryan said. “The value of the airplane compared to the cost to do the repairs isn’t worth it. The plane absorbed a lot of energy in the crash.”
In 1999, the county paid $114,000 for the now-defunct plane, when mosquito personnel said it would last about 10 years. While the type of fate met by the machine wasn’t predicted, the plane performed as long as expected, Ryan said.
“We had projected a 10-year useful life, so financially, the county got good service out of it,” he said.
A mandatory Federal Aviation Administration investigation into the crash should be completed soon, and an internal investigation should be finished early next week, Pct. 2 County Commissioner Matt Sebesta said. The county still has a 1958 Beachcraft E-18 turbine plane purchased for about $350,000 in 2004.
Ryan said the E-18 is in good condition and could be back in the air by next weekend.
“Mr. Ryan has begun a review of their policies and procedures, and the other plane is grounded until they can assess how they do things,” Sebesta said.
The crashed airplane wasn’t insured and the county has not yet discussed replacement, Sebesta said. The insurance deductible would have been $100,000. The E-18 isn’t insured because of deductibles and the cost of insurance compared to value, Ryan said.
Despite just having one plane, mosquito eradication still is faster now than a decade ago, he said.
“Prior to this (crashed) plane coming online in 2000, it took us 10 hours to cover Lake Jackson, Clute and Richwood and another 10 hours to do the Angleton area,” he said. “When we added the other airplane, that workload was reduced to an hour and a half. We added four times capacity with that plane.”
The turbine E-18 can cover “most of the populated areas” in the southern end of the county in about two-and-a-half hours, he said. That area includes Angleton and all cities south and west.
Officials gauge mosquito population in two main ways. An employee stands in a particular area and counts the number of insects landing below their waist. Once the number reaches 100, the employee stops counting. The second method is based on the number of calls the district receives. The field count has been “extreme,” or more than 100, in area salt marshes for the last week, Ryan said. The number of calls to the office also is increasing, meaning the mosquitos are leaving the marsh for more populated areas, Henderson said.
“Within the last couple of days, the phones have picked up quite a bit,” said Fran Henderson, mosquito control foreman. “Mosquito counts are starting to spread throughout the county now.”
Calls spread just as do the insects, coming first from the southern part of the county, then from more northern communities, Henderson said.
John Lowman covers Brazoria County for The Facts. Contact him at 979-849-8581.
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