No Aircraft
Situational Awareness
No Specific Anomaly Occurred All Types
General None Reported / Taken
Equipment / Tooling
A 1200 foot broadcast tower near the Pearland Regional Airport (LVJ) in the Houston; TX area has been partially to totally unlit for the past several years.  It has been totally unlit for at least the last four months.  It is located approximately 3 miles south of the airport and within approximately 1.5 miles of the instrument approach to Runway 32.  NOTAM's are repeatedly issued for the tower; but it seems to never get fixed.  As evidenced by the Army helicopter crash into a NOTAM'ed unlit tower near Waco that killed seven people; the NOTAM solution really isn't a solution.  It would seem that the tower operator is abdicating his responsibility to maintain working lights at the expense of safety.  A check of the NOTAM history will reveal how long this situation has persisted. I contacted the FAA; who replied that they had no enforcement powers and that this function was governed by the FCC.  I've filed a complaint with the FCC and received a response that since the tower owner was maintaining NOTAM's; there was no violation (email from local FCC enforcement officer pasted at bottom).  I find this to be an incredible situation. A tower owner can skate by for years using the NOTAM system; effectively negating any incentive to spend the money to light his tower; while putting the rest of the flying public at risk.  This is a tall tower near a busy airport in the metropolitan area of the fourth largest city in the US and it has been totally dark.  Unbelievable. I also find the FCC's response to this issue to be unacceptable.  They seem to be in no rush to force the tower owner to meet their established lighting requirements.  There is no reason in the world that it should take this long for a tower to get a lighting system installed. It's done every day on towers all over the world.  At the very least; he could put temporary strobes on it. Email response from FCC;  'I received your complaint concerning the light outage on Tower number 1052126 near the airport in Pearland; TX.  The owner is maintaining a NOTAM so there is no FCC Rule violation.  The owner has had the lighting repaired multiple times; but the lighting kept going out.  He finally realized that the entire lighting system must be replaced.  He is in the process of purchasing the necessary equipment and working with a tower company to have the lighting repaired.  I'll be staying in touch with the owner to ensure the lighting is repaired.    Communications Commission Enforcement Bureau South Central Region Houston Office. '
Pilot reports that a communication tower (1052126) three miles south of LVJ has been unlighted or partially lighted for years and needs to be repaired instead of just issuing Notam's.