One of Coachella Valley’s more popular attractions, The Palm Springs Air Museum is open and is taking extra precautions to keep people safe. NBC Palm Springs visited the historic hangers and caught up with visitors looking for both entertainment and safety.

The Palm Springs Air Museum is a representation of history, and during this unprecedented time, museum officials are eager for people to experience all it has to offer while also following public health guidelines.

“You can see some of the changes, the doors are open to the hangers, normally this time of year, everything would be closed, we’d be all nice and air-conditioned,” said Fred Bell, Vice Chairman of Palm Springs Air Museum.

Bell says among some of the changes include wearing a mask, social distancing, hand-sanitizer stations, and thermometer checks. They are also taking extra precautions to keep the area clean using hospital grade materials.

“At two o’clock in the morning, the fans come on and we dump all the air in the building and then we sanitize the building with a hospital-grade inhibitor, we fog the buildings, all the buildings once a week,” explained Bell.

Many valley residents are looking for safe ways to get out of the house, which has led to many first time visitors at the museum. We caught up with first-time visitors who said they were looking to get out, but keep safe was something that was on their minds when choosing where to go.

“We started in The World War II Hangar which we are in right now, which was actually pretty cool. It’s good to see the art on the planes and to really see the stories. taking my temperature isn’t a big thing, wearing a mask isn’t a big thing, you can even make it match your outfit, so it’s good,” said Danielle Wilson visiting from Hayward, California.

“We wanted to take a break from everything that is going on, we’re trying to do things where this is not a lot of people and you know just trying to have a good time since the kids have been indoors all this time, and this looked amazing,” exclaimed Sharol Rodriguez visiting from Anaheim, California.

The museum has limited its occupancy to 25% and has closed off close enclosed attractions like flight simulators and the museum’s library.

“We have 100,000 feet in the building and you can walk through the entire building and not touch anything and social distance, which is what we are trying to do. as a cultural institution, we have a responsibility to educate and also to allow people as I said to just come out and burn off a little steam,” added Bell.

The Palm Springs Air Museum will be hosting a blood drive on July 4th where antibody tests will be available. for more information on that, you can head to the Palm Springs Air Museum’s Facebook page and click on events: https://www.facebook.com/palmspringsairmuseum/

Palm Springs Air Museum Adapts to Covid-19 Changes