What happens to the airspace when the tower closes due to evac like this? I heard them declare Class C services terminate was wondering what happens after that point? It's never been something that I've run into or been taught in any of my prior training.
The Class C services are terminated each evening at 11:30 PM and remains closed until 5:45 AM the next morning. Approach services are provided by a sector of Cleveland Center during that time period. This is essentially what happened the morning of the tower fire. Class C is still not in effect when Cleveland Center owns the airspace-- it becomes Class E at that point -- so it's up to pilots to exercise the ability to see and avoid and communicate on the CTAF frequency.
You would think they would have like an FBO or someone monitoring the tower/ground freq. letting inbound/outbound aircraft what was going on.
Yes, this does make a lot of sense. Quite frankly, they probably did hear the calls from the Cessna pilot holding short of what he thought was an active, controlled runway. I know they listen to LiveATC in the FBO, but they also have a transceiver. I know that one transceiver was made available for the controllers to use inside the temporary facility (which was at the time a parking lot bus that they stationed in the middle of the airport), and it may have been the transceiver from the FBO. If it wasn't in the emergency procedures for the tower, then the FBO really couldn't be held accountable, since it sounds as though all pilots on all Flint frequencies were notified of the emergency. This particular pilot missed the call, and seeing that he had called holding short of the active runway, he may have been doing a runup and was unable to hear the radio at the time.
According to the airport director, the administrative offices inside the tower have been reopened. Additionally, from the sounds of the Flint Approach frequency being active once again, it appears as though the radar room is back open. The airport director did say, however, that the controllers will not be able to use the tower cab for at least another 2-3 months.
The clearance delivery, ground control, and local (tower) control positions are being run out of a trailer very similar to what is used at Oshkosh during the EAA AirVenture Fly-In. The bus was replaced by that trailer after a few days. I do believe they're still running as an up-down facility, where controllers rotate shifts among what we consider the cab positions (DEL, GND, and TWR) and radar approach control. Maintenance vehicles are being used to shuttle the controllers back and forth.
For about a week after the fire, the controllers were only able to control Flint as a Class D facility because the radar room was, at the time, damaged, and Cleveland Center either can't or was unable to run Class C services. With the re-opening of the radar room, the field is now back to normal operations, although controllers are restricted to using the trailer for the DEL, GND, and TWR positions.