Futenma air station lacks legally required safety clear zones in a dense city

Evidence

Most important, the military also agreed to close the controversial Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. Built atop five villages destroyed during World War II, Futenma is now surrounded by Ginowan, a densely populated city of almost a hundred thousand. The airfield is only a few hundred yards from numerous schools, child care facilities, apartment buildings, and hospitals. In some cases, houses and playgrounds are just a matter of feet from the base’s fences. Low-flying helicopters and planes are a nearly constant visual and aural presence. At Okinawa International University, just a few hundred yards from the airfield, our tour group witnessed students and faculty forced to close the windows in an extremely hot and humid, un-air-conditioned building because they couldn’t hear one another talking above the helicopter noise. Even more seriously, there are no safety “clear zones” beyond Futenma’s runways, as the law requires at U.S. military and civilian airfields. Airports worldwide are often situated in urban areas, but Futenma is so surrounded by Ginowan that it looks as if someone dug a 1,188-acre hole in the middle of the city. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 851