AIRCRAFT SALVAGE COMPANY COMING TO CRESTVIEW

They keep coming and coming. This is the latest of a number of new aerospace businesses coming to the Crestview Industrial Airpark. As I have mentioned before, this Airpark is ideal for a number of new businesses and existing businesses, since it sits along the I-10 corridor and Eglin AFB. AS ALWAYS STAY TUNED FOR MORE. This Airport has the potential of bring far more people than the 7th Special Forces to the area, and I am pretty confident it will. The State of Florida has given over $5,000,000 to Okaloosa County for Airport improvements, which has been used make the airport accessible by the largest aircraft in the world.

Aircraft salvage company to land
Qwest Air Parts will disassemble commercial airliners and sell the parts
By MICHAEL STEWART
Florida Freedom Newspapers
CRESTVIEW — The World Airways DC10-30 that landed at Bob Sikes Airport on Wednesday will be stripped and its parts sold. The plane was purchased by Memphis, Tenn.-based Qwest Air Parts Inc., which disassembles retired commercial airliners and sells the parts to airline companies around the world. Qwest is opening a facility at Bob Sikes. It will operate out of a temporary hangar to be built until construction of the company’s permanent hangar is complete, Okaloosa County Airports Director Greg Donovan said. The DC10-30 is the first Qwest airplane that will be disassembled at Bob Sikes. A second DC10-30 is expected to arrive next week. “This is the start of big things for our airport,” Okaloosa County Commission Chairman Wayne Harris said. Every piece of the airplanes, which each seated 350-plus passengers, will be sold. “One company might buy the landing gears and the engines will be sold to another,” Donovan said. All the parts are certified and utilized. Once stripped, the aluminum hull is salvaged for scrap. Qwest employs 22 people at its location in Tennessee. The company initially plans to hire between five and 10 people for the Crestview location. At 8,000 feet, the runway at Bob Sikes is the second longest commercial and industrial runway in the region. Only the new 10,000-foot-long runway in Panama City is longer. Qwest’s startup at Bob Sikes, along with the airport’s runway capability, instrument landing system and thousands of acres of developable property bode well for future expansion, Donovan said. To help facilitate that growth, $11.5 million in improvements will be presented to county commissioners in December. Plans call for widening taxiways up to 75 feet and storm drainage improvements. The Federal Aviation Administration will fund $5 million and the Florida Department of Transportation is expected to kick in another $3 million. The remaining $3.5 million will come from matching funds by the airport. “None of it is taxpayer money,” Donovan said. Work could begin in December or January. Jonathan Dunn, president of Emerald Coast Aviation, Bob Sikes’ fixedbase operator, said Qwest’s arrival “is what Crestview has needed.” “This is going to bring jobs and revenue to Crestview,” Dunn said.

Daily News Staff Writer Kari Barlow contributed to this report.