Small Indiana airport gets permission to land planes in bad weather for first time

The Federal Aviation Administration is creating a new airspace zone around Crown Point, Indiana that allows planes to land using instruments instead of visual reference. This makes the airport usable in fog, clouds, and darkness — conditions that previously forced planes to divert elsewhere.

Crown Point airport has been operating with visual-only landing rules, which means bad weather shuts it down. This change removes that constraint and opens the airport to regular scheduled service and instrument training. The catch is tiny: this only matters if someone actually builds instrument landing equipment there and people use it.