New PSA Jet Tests Low at John Wayne : It Easily Passes Noise Standard, May Bring Revised Regulations
PSA’s new British Aerospace jet took off Thursday at John Wayne Airport at noise levels below Orange County’s regulatory minimums for passenger jets, stunning airport noise-abatement officials and theoretically qualifying the aircraft for an unlimited number of flights.
The BAe-146, introduced at Southern California airports during the past few months, became the first commercial jetliner ever to register less than 86 decibels at noise monitors near the airport. The aircraft fell below the airport’s noise thresholds while fully loaded with the equivalent of 100 passengers, baggage and enough fuel to reach San Francisco.
The surprising noise readings, registered during the county’s official noise tests of the PSA aircraft at John Wayne, plunged Orange County into a new regulatory quandary.
Outside Regulations
The complex set of regulations limiting airline flights at the airport, tentatively adopted Jan. 30 and intended to cover the next five years, applies only to jets that measure more than 86 decibels on takeoff, primarily because officials and noise specialists did not think the technology existed that would allow any passenger jet to fall below that threshold.
Even the recently adopted incentive flight program, which allows airlines to trade in regular departures on a 2-for-1 basis by phasing in quieter jets, was intended for jets that could take off at 89.5 decibels and below.
“Based on the four flights they flew today, I would say they are very, very quiet,” said airport manager Murry Cable.
“Based on these numbers, and based on the access plan the Board of Supervisors has approved, they would be under the 86-decibel ceiling, which means they would qualify to fly unrestricted flights out of John Wayne Airport,” Cable said.
“We’re obviously thrilled. It’s very, very encouraging,” PSA spokesman Bill Hastings said. “We thought we’d be below the (89.5 decibel) level, but it was substantially below, which is encouraging.”
Speculation Declined
Hastings said he “couldn’t comment” on whether the airline will seek flights beyond the county’s normal 55-flight cap.
A new master plan recently adopted for John Wayne, allowing for an expansion from 41 to 55 daily jet departures beginning April 1, was approved only over the vehement objections of Newport Beach and Santa Ana Heights, communities that lie below the flight path of departing jets. The master plan establishes noise regulations only for aircraft louder than 86 decibels on takeoff, however.
The prospect of unlimited flights will undoubtedly prove politically explosive, and Orange County officials late Thursday were already scrambling to come up with new regulatory schemes to contain the British jet, which is already in service at a number of California airports, including Ontario, Burbank, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
PSA executives, who gathered with airport officials to watch the noise tests Thursday, were “turning cartwheels” over the results, which were telephoned to the airport terminal from the county’s noise-monitoring computers about half a mile away.
At 80,000 pounds--the equivalent of a fully loaded trip to San Francisco--the airplane registered 82.5, 83.8 and 84.9 decibels at the county’s three noise monitors nearest the airport.
Low Levels of Noise
At 82,500 pounds--enough to fly fully loaded to Seattle--it registered 85.3, 86.6 and 87.3 decibels: not low enough for unlimited flights, but still sufficient to qualify for 2-for-1 incentive flights.
(By comparison, the McDonnell Douglas MD-80, the predominant aircraft now in use at John Wayne, typically registers about 96 decibels. Because the decibel scale is logarithmic, 10 decibels noisier is twice as loud.)
It appears clear that county officials will move to adopt more stringent controls that would prevent PSA from flying out of the airport without restriction, but it is by no means certain that the county will be able to keep the 55-flight ceiling intact.
Lowering the noise regulation threshold to 81 decibels, for instance, would invite a rush of lawsuits from airlines, given the volume of studies and hearings that went into adopting the 86-decibel threshold Jan. 30, county officials said. Moreover, it would require county officials to begin regulating commuter aircraft and even some general aviation aircraft that fly in the low-80-decibel range, they said.
Cable said he is talking with attorneys now about tying regulations to the capacity limits of the airport.
The environmental impact report accompanying the newly adopted master plan allows for a maximum of 8,500 passengers a day at the facility, given its cramped terminal and parking facilities. Yet 55 flights are only expected to produce 7,700 passengers.
More Flights?
Therefore, PSA could be offered additional flights up to the airport’s maximum passenger capacity--about seven additional flights in the BAe-146, in addition to the flights it would receive within the normal allocation process--which would raise total daily departures at the airport to 62 flights, Cable suggested.
Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, who represents the communities surrounding the airport and who fought for the 55-flight limit, reacted angrily to that proposal. “I think Murry’s out of order to bring that in because the board’s credibility would be really challenged,” Riley said. “I’m pretty angry that he’d even make those kind of observations without getting some sort of feeling from the Board of Supervisors. It’s irresponsible.”
Riley said he would lean toward imposing separate limits on all aircraft operating below 86 decibels, including commuter aircraft, which the county deregulated last year in an attempt to lure passengers onto the quieter planes and into other Southland airports for their long-term trips.
Some Enthusiastic
However, not all of the supervisors have shared Riley’s emphasis on an absolute ceiling on flights at John Wayne. Most of the other board members favor an eventual expansion to 73 jet flights, and their aides on Thursday were enthusiastic about the new plane.
“We’re very impressed. Having the best available technology is what all those regulations were about. I think that anything that we can to do encourage the introduction of that aircraft should be done,” said Steve Malone, an aide to Supervisor Ralph Clark.
George Rebella, aide to Supervisor Harriett Wieder, said, “I was kind of flabbergasted. I hadn’t really considered that a plane could come in and fly below 86 decibels at this time . . . . It should be good news for the people who live around the airport.”
Newport Beach City Councilwoman Evelyn Hart, who had not heard of the test results, said, “Beautiful. That’s great.” But she said she couldn’t comment on whether the city would object to allowing additional departures for the new aircraft.
Tentative Accord
Though the city had signed a tentative agreement with the county that would have allowed unlimited departures for aircraft registering less than 86 decibels, that was not intended to apply for another 20 years, Hart said. “Right now, we’re not willing to go over 41 (flights) without some guarantees.”
The aircraft’s noise tests are not yet official. The plane must undergo additional tests at heavier weights on Saturday, since John Wayne officials require aircraft to be tested at the maximum weight they are capable of carrying from the airport’s 5,700-foot runway.
However, Hastings said the 89,500-pound gross weight scheduled for Saturday is far beyond the load the plane would ever be expected to carry on PSA’s routes, most of which go to the Bay Area and to the Pacific Northwest. The craft’s final fate will be decided by its average noise level over several months, officials said.
The carrier plans to schedule most of its additional flights which are likely to include at least the three additional incentive flights the airline has applied for--to San Francisco and San Jose, Hastings said. “We’re trying to develop a strong business market,” he said.
PSA so far is the only air carrier serving John Wayne Airport that has ordered the $15-million, four-engine BAe-146, which was first developed in the 1960s as a replacement for propeller airplanes like the DC-3 and for airports with less-than-ideal runway conditions.
The project was shelved, then revived during the late 1970s, when noise began to be a factor of increasing importance at airports all over the world, according to British Aerospace spokesman Doug Nelms.
PSA has ordered 20 of the aircraft and six have been delivered. Orders for an additional 12 aircraft have been placed by U.S. air carriers, including Air Wisconsin, Air Pacific and Aspen Airways, officials of British Aerospace said.
