CLEARWATER, FLA. — The Clearwater Executive Airport, formerly the Clearwater Airpark, will soon have a new piece of safety equipment that will help pilots be able to spot the airport at night.

Bill Hodgson, operations manager for the City of Clearwater’s department of marine & aviation, says a rotating beacon will be installed in the coming weeks. On Monday, the city received the final piece needed to complete the installation. Hodgson says they’re just waiting on a quote from a contractor to get approved, and then the beacon will be put into place.

It will be fixed on top of a 40-foot pole and strobe white and green lights deep into the sky. Hodgson says pilots will be able to spot the beacon’s light from 30 to 40 miles away.

“It’s more directional, pointed upwards,” he explained. “It won’t have any impact to houses on the ground.”

Albert Whitted Airport in downtown St. Pete has a similar rotating beacon.

The move comes more than one year after a pilot, Jemin Patel, was attempting to land at the Clearwater Airpark when he crashed into a nearby mobile home park, killing himself and two people on the ground. Crash reports and radio transmissions show that he couldn’t see the airport and was trying to loop around when the plane engine failed.

“I don’t think there was really an emphasis to have a rotating beacon at such a small general aviation airport,” Hodgson explained. “It wasn’t something that was really contemplated until unfortunate incidents within the last few years.”

Pilot Bruce Brock has been renting a hangar at the Clearwater Airpark for the last 16 years. Now retired, he spent his career working in aviation as an Air Force pilot and then as a pilot at a major commercial airliner. Brock says even as a Pinellas County native, he too has trouble spotting the Clearwater Executive Airport at night.

“It used to be the old joke… find the dark spot, and that’s where the airport is,” he said.

Brock has pushed for the last decade for the airport to get the safety mechanism. He says there’s no downside to having the rotating beacon, as it only makes landings after dark safer.

“It’s here. I’m happy it’s here, and I’m looking forward to it being in place,” he said.

The City of Clearwater received an FDOT grant for $110,000 to pay for the cost of the beacon itself. The rest of the operational costs will be funded by the airport’s operator, FlyUSA.