Bartholomew,
I quite understand what you're saying. Of course it was an unspeakable tragedy that the MK crew had to pay for their mistake with their lives. You readily confirm that, were you in charge, you would keep YHZ closed until the berm was removed. You have the courage of your convictions and I salute you for that. Personally, I think you're overreacting but that's just my opinion and I'm no expert, just an interested observer. If your policy were to hold sway, I'll bet a whole string of fields would have to be shut down and operations curtailed at many more.
You make a plea for airports to be obstruction-free but add a qualifier: "within reason". Ah, that's the rub. What exactly constitutes a reasonable obstruction? I guess on the matter of the YHZ berm, the top of which was at the same elevation as the end of the runway (because of the sloping terrain), we disagree.
Rockhound