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Cleveland airport board debates safety measures for runway prayer walk
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Summary
Board members raised safety concerns about a planned May 24 “Wing and a Prayer” runway prayer walk, urging fail‑safe visual closures, risk assessments and more formal coordination with the FAA and tenants; the airport director said volunteers and spotters will be used to monitor participants.
The Cleveland Airport Board discussed safety measures for a planned May 24 “Wing and a Prayer” runway prayer walk, with members urging stronger visual closures and a formal safety risk assessment and the airport director proposing volunteers and spotters to monitor participants.
Board members and tenants said pedestrian activity on the runway creates a hazard if an aircraft needs to make an emergency landing. An attendee told the board, “I think it's a safety issue having people, especially non aviation people on a runway.”
The airport director said he called the meeting to “go over the wing and a prayer event” and to “gain some support, from the tenants,” and described proposed safeguards including volunteers wearing vests and carrying radios to spot aircraft. “For an hour, I'm confident that we can have a successful event,” the director said.
Board members suggested stronger, standard visual cues that pilots immediately recognize, such as large illuminated X signs or flat removable X panels that lie on the pavement. One board member said an X is an unambiguous signal to pilots: “When you have an X. That's what that means to a pilot. Right. Runway closed.” The group noted that ordinary measures such as posting a NOTAM do not reach all pilots en route and do not prevent emergency landings.
A board member urged the airport to consider a formal safety risk management study like those done for other aviation events (for example, drag racing), to identify risks from every vantage point and require mitigations, including clearly visible runway closures. Another member suggested that police vehicles with lights could help as a visual cue but that the X marking remains the standard.
No formal action was taken at the meeting. The director said he would try to locate large runway‑closure markers before the event and continue coordinating with tenants and volunteers to provide spotters, radios and vests.
The discussion also touched on precedent: the board noted the Young Eagles event in which the runway was closed and operations went “off without a hitch,” and said that the same precautions and volunteer oversight were intended for the prayer walk.
Board members agreed that safety must be prioritized while balancing the airport’s interest in community engagement; they asked staff to pursue additional visual closure devices and to confirm whether a formal FAA‑assisted safety risk assessment is warranted.
