McCollum Field Tower Will Close

The air traffic control tower at McCollum Field in Kennesaw is closing. The Federal Aviation Administration made the announcement Friday.

In addition to McCollum, Lawrenceville's Briscoe Field is on a list of 149 towers slated to close.

The tower at Fulton County's Brown Field, which was on an earlier list of potential closures, was one of 24 towers across the country that the FAA spared. Closing those towers "would have a negative impact on the national interest," the FAA said in a news release.

Earlier this month, the FAA proposed closing 189 air traffic control towers as part of a plan to meet the $637 million in cuts required under budget sequestration. McCollum airport manager Karl Von Hagel told the Marietta Daily Journal at the time that "planes will have to rely on plane-to-plane communications in order to land" after the shutdown of the control tower, which will likely make the field a less efficient operation, and cause a "reduction in the margin of safety."

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called today's decisions "tough.

"We heard from communities across the country about the importance of their towers. Unfortunately we are faced with a series of difficult choices that we have to make to reach the required cuts under sequestration."

The FAA will begin a four-week phased closure of the 149 towers beginning on April 7.

Click here for the complete list of closures.

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