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Zara Rutherford, a 19-year-old pilot from Belgium, stopped at King County International Airport on Sept. 19, about halfway to her goal of becoming the youngest woman to fly solo around the world.
"With this flight I want to encourage girls and young women to pursue their dreams," Rutherford said on her website. "I want to reduce the gender gap in aviation as well as in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)."
Ciara Gamble, ACE, got to greet Rutherford and give her some small gifts from ARFF and the airport.
"She was great!" Gamble said. "It is such a cool journey to hear about."
Alyssa Dean had a message for Rutherford, which was delivered in a welcome card: "She has majorly inspired the women at this airport!"
Learn more and follow Rutherford's journey.
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 King County International Airport (KCIA) has successfully completed Level 1, Mapping, of the Airport Carbon Accreditation Program (ACAP). The program, managed by Airports Council International (ACI), is the first and only carbon certification program for airports. KCIA is the first General Aviation airport in Washington state to join the global effort.
“I am excited that the airport team is leading the way to be good stewards of our environment,” said John Parrott, KCIA director.
“Congratulations to the KCIA Green team!” added Caroline Whalen, Director of the Department of Executive Services.
Eric Miller, Capital Project Manager, deserves all the credit, said Mohammed Nimeri, Managing Engineer. To achieve Level 1, Miller led the effort to compile all emission sources that are airport-owned, such as natural gas, electricity from buildings, and emissions from fleet vehicles and fire training (ARFF) exercises. After performing greenhouse gas emission calculations, 2019 was selected as the “base year” to compare earlier and future years’ emissions.
“We will perform additional greenhouse gas emission calculations for 2016-2018 to see if we are going down or going up, and where we can improve,” Miller said. “Then we will be setting reduction targets as part of the Level 2 certification.”
“The goal that we’ve set is to become carbon neutral, which is achieving level 3-plus, by 2030,” Miller added. “That’s really what I’m looking forward to, setting that standard for the county and for the region. I’m excited to keep pushing airports in that general direction.”
In June, Miller gave a presentation about the ACAP at the International Conference on Transportation & Development organized by the Transportation & Development Institute (T&DI) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
The airport will receive recognition at an upcoming Airports Council International (ACI) conference for the achievement.
New exhaust systems were installed recently on two fire rigs at the airport fire station, aimed at helping protect Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) employees from diesel fumes and soot, known cancer-causing products. Batallion 24 and Rescue 24 both had new systems installed. Rescue 424, the standby truck, was the oldest vehicle and the first with an exhaust system installed in April 2019.
Before these improvements, whenever the firefighters would start the engine and drive a truck forward, black smoke would come pouring out, as in the photo to the left.
“If you drive forward in one of our crash trucks, there’s exhaust coming out and nothing to capture it,” said ARFF Deputy Ron Darnall, who served as the health and safety officer after his return from the fire academy in June 2017.
The airport fire station, built in 2017, was equipped with a ventilation system with a hood designed for stationery trucks. It worked well when a fire truck was under it, but didn’t work well for fire trucks leaving the station.
“The fans were suspending (the particulate) in the air until the doors get shut. When the fan slows down, all the particulate would settle like dust.”
That dust was getting into the station. Black soot caked on the HEPA filters installed in fire fighters’ sleeping quarters.
“We’ve been breathing that,” Darnall said. "According to the ARFF conference I recently attended, structure panel operators and medics are getting comparable levels of exposure to (cancer-causing dust) as the people entering a structure on a fire.”
ARFF worked closely with Safety and Claims Management to evaluate the problem and develop solutions. Rob Stafford, Certified Safety Professional, included the following in a report, modified for length and to correct typographical errors:
In October 2018 an indoor air quality evaluation was conducted in the ARFF Station. The evaluation focused on a review of the general ventilation systems in place and the level of diesel particulate the crash tenders were producing within the vehicle bay. There are no established regulations diesel particulate in vehicle bays, however, the concentration (220 ug/M3 ) of the sample taken was above the MSHA’s permissible exposure limit (PEL) illustrating that the current ventilation system for the vehicles were inadequate.
Improvements made in 2019 resulted in an 81 percent decrease in the levels of total carbon, with levels between 19 ug/M3 and 41 ug/M3, putting it well below permissible levels for mining operations (160 ug/M3).
It is hoped that the newest systems installed on the two rigs will further improve air quality.
“The goal is to lower these values even further to limit our risk to the cancers associated with diesel particulate,” Darnall said.
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In the "before times," before COVID-19 shut down so much of our world, firefighters at the ARFF fire station frequently gave tours. About 750 people went on tours in 2018 and 2019 before COVID hit.
Vaccinations and masks allowed a small group of employees and a family member to take a tour recently. Thanks to Chief Greg Thomas, Deputy Graydon Matheson and Deputy Kirk Rains for taking the time to show us around!
We learned that firefighter boots alone feel like they weigh a ton (the boots with pants weigh 14 pounds); the complete bunker gear can weigh 50 pounds, including the oxygen tank.
At right, Cameron Satterfield is all geared up!
Below, from left, Barbara Ramey; her son, Preston; Cameron Satterfield, Chief Greg Thomas and Deputy Graydon Matheson.
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Grant Dunbar, who flew in to KCIA from Everett, is working to complete the Fly Washington Passport Program logbook. Participants collect “passport stamps” at enrolled public-use airports.
King County International Airport is one of more than 100 airports enrolled in the program.
The Passport Program, launched in April 2019, encourages pilots and aviation enthusiasts to explore Washington’s public‑use airports. The program's overall goal is to increase aviation economic activity and enhance general aviation visibility.
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