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Flight N735ZA landed at the Palo Alto Airport shortly after noon on Sunday.
Two pilots emerged from the small aircraft, carrying emergency cargo from Concord. They wore neon green vests to signal that they belonged to the local chapter of CalDART, which stands for Disaster Airlift Response Team.
It was a short 20-minute trip by air, whereas driving across the Dumbarton Bridge would have taken well over an hour — and in a disaster situation, every second counts.
The cargo in question? A bag full of “emergency cookies.”
“We want to do everything as if it were a real emergency,” said Carol Munch, a member of the management team at Palo Alto DART.
Palo Alto DART conducted its annual emergency training at the local airport on Aug. 30, sending volunteer pilots across the San Francisco Bay to Concord and back to practice delivering emergency supplies. The Palo Alto team worked in conjunction with Contra Costa DART for the exercise, and a simulated emergency like this one is required at least once a year by the state.
The organization launched its operations in 2020 and is one of many flying groups that rely on the small but busy airport near the Palo Alto Baylands. Palo Alto is currently in the process of crafting a long-term plan for upgrading the airport, but its most recent proposal hit turbulence in 2024 when residents from Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Menlo Park opposed alternatives that would extend the sole runway. A revised plan is currently in the works.
Some residents and environmentalists have argued that the airport is not compatible with the sensitive habitat of the Baylands, and some even advocated for Palo Alto Airport to be shut down altogether.
Local pilots and city officials have countered that the Embarcadero Road facility is both a critical “reliever airport” that takes pressure off larger airports and a crucial tool for handling emergencies, with Stanford Hospital using it as a refueling stop for Life Flight helicopters and the local DART chapter relying on it as a base for its operations.
There are 12 local CalDART chapters across the state, and each one is made up entirely of volunteers, most of whom are pilots. In addition to flying planes in an emergency, volunteers lead communications, coordinate logistics with emergency service departments and provide flight support from the ground.
“We get aviation pilots together in response to a disaster in which transportation by road is not available to certain places,” Munch said. “So the idea is, if they can get through by road, that’s preferable, but if they can’t, we can bring things.”
During the exercise, the team experienced one small hiccup. The radio signal that Palo Alto volunteers used to communicate with Concord was jammed. Rob French, who also helps lead Palo Alto DART, explained that the signal goes first to Mount Diablo and then to Concord because there is no line of sight between the two cities; the East Bay hills are to blame.
The team had a backup plan, though, and was able to reach Concord through another tower in the Oakland Hills.
“We started doing our communications with Concord, and it started squealing because someone was blocking our signal. It’s very illegal, it’s against federal law,” French said. “It was actually a great chance (to test the system) and it actually showed some problems: We had some trouble programming the radio for the backup.”
For communications and response, Palo Alto DART coordinates with the city’s Office of Emergency Services and the Santa Clara Amateur Radio Emergency Services, another volunteer organization that trains people in emergency communications.
Anywhere from 200 to 300 flights per day go through the Palo Alto Airport, and neighbors have long raised concerns about the airport noise and associated pollution. It’s not limited to the local airport, either: Earlier this year, San Francisco officials denied an appeal from Palo Alto neighbors that argued against an enhancement plan at SFO, citing noise and environmental impacts related to the three arrival routes that fly directly over Palo Alto.
Munch said part of the issue is that the airport houses three flight schools, and learning pilots make mistakes and can sometimes wander too close to residential neighborhoods.
“And of course, the airport has been here longer than they were,” French added. “People move into an area knowing there’s an airport … and then they still try to get the airport closed after they move here.”
Fortunately, Palo Alto DART hasn’t had to mobilize for a real emergency in years. According to Munch, the most recent time volunteers from Palo Alto were deployed was in 2021 to transport PPE and medical gowns from Santa Barbara to the Yurok Indian Tribe in the most northern parts of California along the Klamath River.
French said volunteer pilots also flew to Nevada County in 2023 to help local emergency service workers plan evacuation routes and view infrastructure from above. The county is just north of Lake Tahoe and includes the Tahoe National Forest, whose mountains and dense landscape can make surveying difficult on the ground. The area is also prone to wildfires — this week, firefighters contained the Clover Fire, which burned 14 acres over the span of four days.
The Nevada County mission also took county executives in the air to learn more about CalDART’s ability to assist in case of an emergency.
Borrowing from that framework, Palo Alto DART invited every member of the City Council to its training day on Aug. 30, which included the chance to take a joyride above the Midpeninsula in a small aircraft. None responded, according to Neeraj Pendse, another member of the leadership team at Palo Alto DART.
The organization had better luck in East Palo Alto, where residents have raised concerns about recent plans to expand Palo Alto Airport runways. East Palo Alto Mayor Webster Lincoln arrived and joined a short flight with Palo Alto DART pilot Louise Mateos. The pair went down toward Santa Cruz and flew back up across the South Bay through San Jose and Cupertino.
Lincoln said it was his first time in a small aircraft like this. After the flight, Lincoln recalled the Loma Prieta earthquake that rendered roads throughout the Bay Area unusable — including the Bay Bridge.
“An emergency can happen at any time,” he said. “It’s good to have this emergency response team, and I’m glad that I had the opportunity to learn more about what they’re doing and some of the resources here.”
This reporter also had the chance to go up in the air with Pendse as pilot. The plane, a 2023 Cessna, was outfitted with more advanced GPS and other equipment on the dashboard. Pendse himself has been flying for 25 years and is a flight instructor at the Palo Alto Airport, where he also teaches his son how to fly.
There were meticulous checks before, during and after the flight, and radio to the Palo Alto Airport was near constant. Most of the noise was related to other incoming or outgoing flights, and Pendse said he has learned to filter the radio for his specific flight number so he isn’t overwhelmed.
Taking off from Palo Alto, Pendse flew first toward the Dumbarton Bridge, cruising at 1,500 feet at a slower speed, around 110 mph. The aircraft can handle up to 180 mph, Pendse said. Making a u-turn near the middle of the bridge, he then flew toward Stanford University and the Dish, climbing to 3,500 feet as the plane approached the hills to the west.
Rolling hills, lush greenery and large hillside homes unfurled beneath the aircraft, while the remnants of the 2021 Big Basin fire were just out of sight.
Although the ocean was smothered in a blanket of fog, the coastline was barely visible from the aircraft.
“On a clear day, it’s just beautiful,” Pendse said. “The whole Pacific is open for you.”
Compared to commercial flights, the takeoff and landing was smooth; the touchdown bump characteristic of most larger plane rides was absent. Pendse approached the runway along the Baylands at 80 mph, but the landing itself happened around 50 mph and felt similar to a car on the highway. The gusts coming off the Bay can make landing and takeoff more tricky, especially in smaller aircrafts, but the clear weather and morning departure made for calmer winds.
“We cheated death another day!” Pendse joked upon landing.
