The city-owned Scottsdale Airport, where planes have been flying since 1942, was the scene of a deadly crash between a Learjet 35A owned by Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil and a parked Gulfstream 200 jet. Neil was not on board when its landing gear apparently failed Monday and collided with the other aircraft on the runway, according to
a written statement released
to media from Worrick Robinson, IV, an attorney in Nashville, where Neil is based. Mötley Crüe is a long-running heavy metal rock band known for songs such as "Shout at the Devil," "Girls, Girls, Girls" and "Dr. Feelgood." Four people were on the Learjet and one person was on the Gulfstream 200, according to
the Federal Aviation Administration . Scottsdale Airport, near Scottsdale and Thunderbird roads, is an open-to-the-public general aviation reliever that accommodates smaller, privately owned airplanes than the bigger commercial facilities in Arizona such as Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Here's what else to know about Scottsdale Airport.
Scottsdale Airport's roots go back to World War II
Scottsdale Airport's precursor, the old Thunderbird Field II, debuted on June 22, 1942, a little more than six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The airfield is
described on the airport's website as "a basic training facility for World War II Army Air Corps pilots" that "graduated more than 5,500 students." Thunderbird Field I was another training facility in Glendale.
Scottsdale in the 1960s converts airfield site to city airport
Scottsdale in the 1960s became interested in opening a satellite municipal airport. In April 1964, then-Mayor John Woudenberg released a feasibility study that pointed to the former Thunderbird Field site, shuttered since October 1944, as the frontrunner location. The Arizona Conference of Seventh-day Adventists since 1953 had owned the Thunderbird Field property and had been using it for dormitories. The conference asked Scottsdale to rezone 218 acres around the airfield for industrial use. The rezoning request was controversial, but the city Planning and Zoning Commission went ahead and endorsed it. Scottsdale in 1966 acquired the airfield site, according to the city's online history of the airport. The new Thunderbird Field, now an auxiliary airport owned and operated by Scottsdale, in 1967 opened for air traffic with a 4,800-foot runway.
Scottsdale Airport and Scottsdale Airpark a crucial regional business hub
Scottsdale Airport, and the surrounding 2,600-acre Scottsdale Airpark commercial zone, over the years has become central to the city's business growth and has proven itself an essential economic asset. Scottsdale's airport website
boasts that Scottsdale Airpark has become the Phoenix metro area's "third-largest employment center" with more than 25 national or regional corporations, more than 2,500 small to medium-sized companies and 48,000 workers.
Noise complaints from neighbors a perennial issue for Scottsdale Airport
As Scottsdale's residential development grew northward, complaints about noise at Scottsdale Airport became a chronic headache for city officials. Scottsdale in 1999 set up a Noise Abatement Program and includes
a page about noise on its airport website. It tracks
noise complaints from inside what it calls the "Scottsdale Airport Influence Area" between 40th Street, Jomax Road, 112th Street and Mockingbird Lane. The airport operates 24/7 but aviators are encouraged "to fly before 10 p.m. and after 6 a.m.," the city says.
Fatality the first at Scottsdale Airport since 2018
The Monday afternoon collision between Neil's Learjet 35A and the Gulfstream 200 jet was the first fatal accident at Scottsdale Airport since six people died on April 9, 2018, after
a Piper PA-24 Comanche crashed shortly after takeoff onto the TPC Scottsdale golf course. A 28-year-old student pilot on the doomed flight, James Pedroza,
had cocaine and MDMA in his system at the time of the accident.
(This story has been updated to add more information.) Dan Nowicki is The Arizona Republic's national politics editor. Follow him on X at @dannowicki .
