Student Kimberly Metz awoke in her dorm to loud, frightening noises coming from Johnson Field early Monday morning.
“I thought there was a giant lawnmower going off,” she said. “I was really freaked out, because I didn’t know what was going on.”
A glance out of the window of her Redondo Village Apartment did not quell her fears, she said, as police cars were scattered over Johnson Field surrounding a helicopter.
UNMPD spokesman Lt. Robert Haarhues said that Johnson Field is used as a back-up helicopter landing pad for the UNM Hospital if there are problems with the regular landing pad.
At 7:50 p.m. Thursday night, another helicopter landed on Johnson Field as part National Guard training, according to police at the site.
Haarhues said UNMPD officers are alerted before a helicopter lands at Johnson Field so they can create a perimeter.
He said a broken helicopter sat on the UNM-H pad awaiting maintenance but is now fixed, so the helipad is back in service.
Careflight, the medical retrieval service at UNM-H, owns and operates 12 helicopters in New Mexico. Each helicopter breaks down about four times a year, said Careflight spokesman Charles Reed.
“The problems that they have are not predictable,” he said. “You can have something that you think it is simple but the further you dig into it you find that it is actually not so simple and you have to take it from there.”
Although there are no specific requirements for a helipad, pilots prefer open spaces at least 60 feet in diameter, Reed said. This makes Johnson Field an ideal landing space.
“Sixty feet would be the very smallest that the pilots would feel comfortable going in and out of,” he said. “It allows for sufficient main rotor and tail rotor clearance.”
A helicopter from Santa Fe broke down on top of UNM-H, Reed said, occupying the helipad for several days and forcing all other helicopters to land at Johnson Field.
“It landed at the UNM Hospital to transport a patient, and while they were getting ready to leave, the aircraft made an unusual sound,” he said. “We never take any chances with anybody’s life, so they immediately shut the aircraft down and called maintenance.”
Student Randi Grantham, who lives on campus, said she was walking to her room from a class when she saw the helicopter in the middle of the field Tuesday night.
“My friend thought maybe it had something to do with the visiting prince that had just been here, but I had no idea,” she said.
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Student Travis DeJong said that he was amazed at the amount of noise coming from the helicopter.
“I could hear it over my stereo as I drove into the parking lot,” he said, “Which is really saying something, because it was on very loud.”
Grantham said that she thought some residents might be disturbed by all the noise and commotion brought by the landing.
“I could see other people trying to study while a huge helicopter on Johnson Field lands outside their window,” she said. “That would definitely distract them.”
Haarhues said residents near Johnson Field no longer need to worry about disturbances caused by helicopter landings.
“The hospital’s helipad is up and running now,” he said. “The broken helicopter is off the helipad so other helicopters can land on it now.”
